The German engineering giant Siemens has unveiled updated plans for its 20-acre Manchester headquarters site — adding a private hospital, three office blocks and almost a hundred homes to its original scheme.
Siemens drew up plans three years ago based on a Regional Growth Fund grant for a “sustainable technology hub” on the site it purchased 26 years ago in 1988. That scheme failed to materialise and a new master plan will go before Manchester City Council’s executive next week.
Choosing to pursue its interest in sustainable technology by continuing its offshore wind technology, sustainable building technologies and healthcare work at the Didsbury site, the latest plan would see a multi-million pound refurbishment of the iconic Sir William Siemens House. The company also wants to build a 90-room private hospital, three office blocks totalling 140,000sq ft, and 90 houses on a six-acre residential estate within the site.
A report, to be discussed by council planners, claims the new scheme will create more than 1,800 jobs in addition to those already employed across Siemens’ various departments. “The proposal to invest in Sir William Siemens House and expand the commercial development opportunities on the Princess Road Campus will create a series of interlinked facilities with Siemens at its heart, driving research and other activities which are generated by Siemens activities,” says the report.
It praises the company’s commitment to the site, and adds: “The proposed upgrade of Sir William Siemens House will provide the potential to deliver substantial additional economic benefits including: attracting suppliers of Siemens who wish to co-locate and collaborate more closely with the company.”
On an academic level the improved facilities would also “strengthen opportunities and incentives for collaborative research and development with the Manchester’s universities”.
The director at the headquarter’s site, Juergen Maier, stressed that for more than a quarter of a century his company had been a major contributor to Greater Manchester’s economy and was committed to making positive social changes to the Didsbury area. “Sir William Siemens House, our iconic white building on Princess Parkway, is a popular landmark and our businesses based on the campus provide high-value employment opportunities for hundreds of people from across and beyond the city region,” he said.
“We are developing our Princess Parkway campus and are able to facilitate the creation of a major mixed use scheme including a new private hospital with one of the market leaders Spire Healthcare, offices and family housing,” added Maier, who has just been appointed chief executive of Siemens UK.
Globally, his company is a major supplier of medical equipment, including diagnostic equipment, medical imagery and therapeutic systems and there is potential to establish a joint national training and marketing initiative based at the Princess Parkway campus.
Spire Healthcare already has 39 private hospitals across Britain. If built, its on-site hospital would undertake complex surgery and medicine through a large and fully functioning intensive therapy unit together with diagnostic and imagery equipment from Siemens.
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