A Far East roadshow highlighting the advantages of a flagship Manchester Airport business park and logistics hub is already paying dividends — with one Chinese company in “advanced negotiations” over moving to the development.
Manchester Airports Group has formed a four-way joint venture with Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG) to build the £800m mixed-use project. The other members are construction giant Carillion and the £11bn Greater Manchester Pension Fund, which manages the employee pensions for the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester and associated bodies.
The promotional tour earlier this year, which attracted considerable attention from across the Pacific region, launched the partnership’s campaign to attract potential investors and future tenants.
Now a report on Airport City — published in advance of a Greater Manchester Combined Authority meeting next month — reveals four international businesses have expressed “serious interest” and have been sent follow-up information. Two have sent executives to visit the airport site.
Organised to show the benefits of investing in Britain, and the North West in particular, the mini-exhibition included delegations and stands from Manchester Airports Group (MAG), Beijing Construction Engineering Group, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the British Embassy, property developer Argent and MIDAS, Manchester’s inward investment agency. It visited Tianjin, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
“Having only engaged so far on a very limited basis, the evidence shows good potential to drive strong volumes from this market,” said the report’s author, Manchester City Council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein. “There is clearly significant potential to secure Chinese businesses as occupiers at Airport City and the joint venture partnership is working through an active list of potential targets generated from the roadshow and BCEG’s networks.
“Proposals have been sent to four businesses since the roadshow — totalling 140,000 sq ft of potential space — with one occupier is advanced negotiations to take 80,000 sq ft of logistics space. A number of these businesses have already visited Manchester and some of them are still to come,” adds his report.
To be developed over a 15 year period it’s hoped that when finished Airport City will generate at least 15,000 jobs. There will be two sites: a world-class logistics hub to the south of the airport and a business district to the north. The 65-acre commercial complex will have 1.2m sq ft of offices, 530,000 sq ft of manufacturing space and an hotel offering 1,300 beds.
“With development clearly visible on site, market interest has significantly increased, with a range of businesses needing a variety of size requirements,” Sir Howard explains.
“Whilst the larger space requirements tend to accept and understand that there is a lead-in time to create bespoke buildings, smaller sized occupiers’ timings tend to be more immediate.”
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