A four-city tour of China promoting Manchester’s multi-million pound Airport City scheme has generated scores of enquiries from the country’s e-commerce and information technology companies.
Reporting back on the roadshow Wang Weibo, the executive director of BCEGI Construction UK — a subsidiary of Beijing Construction Engineering Group, which has a 20 per cent stake in the £800m Airport City project — claimed: “There is particularly strong interest from high-tech businesses to set up in Manchester.”
Speaking at a LSH organised event in the city, he added: “Manchester is a city of firsts with a good quality of life and cultural, strong creative and digital sectors, good healthcare, life sciences, energy, nuclear power and financial and professional services.
“On the back of these advantages we believe Airport City will benefit a variety of businesses, not just large ones, and for companies from around the world.”
Weibo said the 160-acre Airport City scheme, which it is claimed will create as many as 11,400 jobs when completed in 2030, is continuing to progress following George Osborne’s 2013 announcement of a joint venture partnership between Manchester Airports Group and developer Argent.
Stephen Chalcraft is chair of Manchester’s Property and Regeneration Sector Group and a partner in the international law firm Slater and Gordon. “Manchester needs a strong international reputation that extends beyond its two football teams if it is going to succeed in attracting overseas investment,” he explained, while adding that the city achieves just £2.7bn of cross border investment compared to London’s £80m.
“The key issues here are a good skills base and an organised public sector which acts as the catalyst for things to happen,” said Chalcraft. “If it’s going to succeed, a city like Manchester needs the ‘wow factor’ — and Airport City is well on the way to achieving that.”
Already Britain’s third busiest airport, Manchester will become the first in the UK to build a commercial and industrial airport city. Based on similar schemes in Barcelona and Frankfurt, the Manchester project has two distinct development zones.
The first will be adjacent to the airport railway station, north of the M56 motorway, and will consist mainly of office space, hotels and manufacturing facilities. The second core site is already being developed next to Junction 6 of the motorway, and close to the airport’s existing cargo centre.
Earlier this year Manchester Airports Group confirmed it is going ahead with plans to speculatively build the first 75,000 sq ft office element at Airport City while international logistics firm DHL moved in to its bespoke 37,300 sq ft facility on the warehousing site.
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