200K SF Pollard Street Scheme Revealed As Manchester's UK Tech Lead Grows

A 200K SF Manchester coworking and incubator scheme is close to sign-off for a site at Pollard Street.

The Assembly scheme will provide a new commercial campus for tech, creative and fashion businesses, along with 2 acres of new public space close to the New Islington tram stop.

Until now the area has been better known for residential development, but Manchester's headlong rush into the tech sector is creating opportunities in strongly residential-led parts of the city centre.

The development comes as CBRE data shows that Manchester has extended its lead as the dominant tech centre in the UK outside London.

The Pollard Street scheme will see Manchester City Council and Transport for Greater Manchester dispose of a 250-year leasehold interest to allow the project to go ahead. Confidential talks are underway with an unnamed potential developer.

"The commercial space will be developed in a number of phases depending on market conditions but with an obligation to build out," City Council paperwork said. "The 2016 Ancoats and New Islington Neighbourhood Development framework identifies the subject land for employment-led uses."

Manchester City Council told Bisnow that the lease negotiations were due for completion within weeks.

Last year plans emerged for a 300-unit containerised development at Pollard Street to house new and emerging businesses.

CBRE’s ‘Tech Cities’ ranking revealed that Manchester has retained its first place as the leading UK tech city outside of London by some margin, scoring highly across all 15 key locational pull index measures. The survey repeated an analysis first undertaken in 2017.

Manchester remains the No. 1 tech location outside of London, whilst Birmingham has risen three places, from seventh to fourth position.

All markets analysed were scored and ranked according to a wide range of locational pull factors for tech businesses, such as level of education, concentrations of tech businesses and employment, cost of living, cost of office space and wage levels.

In 2018 the tech sector accounted for 15% of all office leasing activity in Manchester. The largest deal was Amazon’s acquisition of 89.5K SF at Hanover, Balloon Street. Following recent announcements from Talk Talk and Hewlett Packard of major office moves to and expansion within the city, more activity is anticipated.

“Connectivity is rapidly becoming the fourth utility for occupiers alongside electricity, water and gas," CBRE Manchester Managing Director John Ogden said. "In a competitive office market such as Manchester, poor connectivity could significantly reduce a property’s appeal as well as its rental value, so landlords see the benefit of delivering tech-enabled developments.”