Consultation on plans for Manchester’s former Central Retail Park
Manchester City Council and the Government Property Agency welcome you to their pre-application consultation on the first phase of development at the former Central Retail Park site in Manchester.
The former Central Retail Park site is one of Manchester’s most important regeneration priorities. The vision for the site is to develop a highly sustainable commercial district with a fully accessible new park at its heart, which will make a positive contribution to this part of the city centre, attract new businesses and create jobs.
Building on the vision set out in last year’s Strategic Regeneration Framework, this latest consultation will introduce and seek feedback on two key areas:
Illustrative landscape masterplan
Site Location
Manchester City Council purchased the former Central Retail Park site on Great Ancoats Street in 2017, with a clear vision to redevelop the site for the benefit of the city’s residents, businesses and visitors.
The 10.5 acre site is located in between Great Ancoats Street and Cotton Field Park, with the Rochdale Canal Towpath on its western side and Old Mill Street to the east. It has been vacant since the Central Retail Park was demolished in 2019.
Plan showing the site within the wider city context.
The neighbourhoods of Ancoats and New Islington have been transformed over the last 20 years, and this site is the final piece in that regeneration jigsaw.
Its development will help to unlock further investment and provide a crucial link between the city centre and East Manchester. It will act as a catalyst for further development and investment, giving a boost to the emerging vision for the regeneration of Holt Town and complementing the leisure developments taking shape at the Etihad Campus.
Site boundary - Rochdale Canal Towpath.
The site from Old Mill Street.
The site from Hugh Oldham Way.
Site boundary - Hugh Oldham Way.
Opportunity
The vision for the former Central Retail Park site is to develop a flagship, highly sustainable commercial district with a fully accessible green space at its heart, which will make a positive contribution to this part of the city centre, attract new businesses and create job opportunities.
The Council agreed an updated Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) in March 2023 that set out the high-level development principles for the site. The consultation on the draft SRF attracted over 500 responses, highlighting the importance of this site to the communities of Ancoats and New Islington, as well as people across the city.
Key features of the SRF vision:
New sustainable offices and workspaces
Summary of consultation feedback:
Positive comments around the creation of new jobs, but requests to ensure that any new office space responds to specific occupier demand.
Requests to ensure that new commercial development will genuinely benefit the local community.
New publicly accessible green space, linking to Cotton Field Park
Summary of consultation feedback:
Comments emphasising the need for more green space for the existing local community, and requests for this new space to be as large and usable as possible.
Requests for the green space to feel like a genuine park or gardens, with places to sit, meet up and enjoy an expanse of greenery.
New retail and leisure spaces
Summary of consultation feedback:
Support for active frontages, suggesting that this would help to bring vibrancy to this part of the city.
Requests for local and independent businesses to be given preference
Better connections through and around the site
Summary of consultation feedback:
Support for providing new walking and cycling routes, particularly for the creation of a new link between Cotton Field Park and Great Ancoats Street.
Requests for cycling infrastructure to be planned in a joined-up way and for cycle parking to be provided.
As the owner of the site, the Council will be working with development partners to bring the SRF vision to life. The first development partner to come on board is the Government Property Agency, which has agreed to purchase half of the site to create a new digitally focused civil service hub: Manchester Digital Campus.
What is the Government Property Agency?
The Government Property Agency (GPA) is helping transform the way the Civil Service works and reshaping the relationship civil servants have with their place of work.
The GPA is an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office. It is a national organisation, working with client departments across the country.
Manchester Digital Campus
The GPA is developing proposals for a new office campus in Manchester focused on digital skills. Manchester Digital Campus will be the home to c. 7,000 civil servants from several departments.
The GPA’s vision is to create great workplaces that enable and inspire everyone to be their best. When they started looking for a site for a new civil service hub in Manchester, the former Central Retail Park quickly became the obvious choice. Its size, coupled with its proximity to public transport and city centre amenities, makes it a unique development opportunity within the city.
View the plans
You can view the emerging plans for Manchester Digital Campus on our consultation boards:
Why Manchester?
Ability to draw on a growing digitally-focused workforce in and around the city.
The emerging pipeline of talent coming from the city’s universities and other educational institutions.
Opportunity to bring together the city’s existing Civil Service workforce in an accessible location – driving efficiency and productivity, as well as greater collaboration.
New City Park
The Manchester Digital Campus plans will enable the delivery of another key aspect of the SRF vision – the new public park at the heart of the site.
The new park space is being designed in collaboration with landscape architects Planit and will help meet the need for quality, attractive green space in the city centre – which will also open up access to the existing Cotton Field Park and Ancoats Marina.
The site will accommodate new walking and cycling routes, helping to link to other city centre active travel investment in Ancoats, the Northern Quarter and out towards the Etihad Campus.
Detailed design work will continue following consultation to deliver a park space comparable in size to Ancoats Green, which is also currently undergoing redevelopment works.
View the plans
You can view the emerging plans for the new park on our consultation boards:
Have Your Say
Our pre-application consultation on the proposals for Manchester Digital Campus and the new public park have now closed. The public consultation was open from 27 August to 23 September 2024 and we are now considering the feedback received.
Get in touch
If you have any questions or would like more information, please do get in touch with our dedicated consultation team:
0808 175 3408
info@fcrp-manchester.co.uk
If you or someone you know has any accessibility needs, please call us so we can ensure everyone can participate in this consultation.