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North West 2010 Awards
Town/City of the Year shortlist
Barrow in Furness
Has struggled not least with the recession but also muddled public sector intervention in Cumbria. The
all-powerful NWDA keeps reinventing delivery boards and producing initiatives but the development
community finds it confusing and off-putting. West Lakes Renaissance. Furness Enterprise. Cumbria
Vision. Barrow Vision. Meanwhile, the detail. In autumn 2008 work started on a £4m public realm
improvement programme in six streets in the town centre. In August ‘09 work started on new road
infrastructure to support the development of employment sites in Barrow-in-Furness. The Phase 2 Link
Road, between the A590 North Road and A5087 Hindpool Road, is the final piece of a series of
highway improvements which are essential to bring forward the £200m mixed residential, business and
leisure development at The Waterfront Barrow-in-Furness. The road received £3m of investment from
the North West Development Agency, £500,000 from Cumbria County Council and a contribution of
£100,000 from Barrow Borough Council. The link road scheme is designed to improve access between
the Waterfront and town centre, ease congestion and help traffic flow. Work stalled on the Story Group’s
marina and residential phase at the scheme after being appointed a year ago. Story is locked in talks
over grant funding from the Homes & Communities Agency. In May, three fully serviced plots covering a
total of 20 acres were brought to market following infrastructure work at the new Ramsden Business
Park in Barrow-in-Furness. Submarine building and the energy coast blueprint underpins much of the
commercial property occupier market, both of which appear solid backed by Government contracts.
Blackpool
Displayed an interesting bounce-back after the super casino debacle, losing to Manchester when the
concept was binned by Gordon Brown as he took the PM’s office. A series of shrewd marketing tactics
has done much to start reinventing the town as a cool and pleasantly surprising place to visit. See the
You Tube campaigns J’aime la Tour http://www.youtube.com/user/VisitBlackpool#p/u/3/6xgxkxqqUH00
and Love, from Blackpool http://www.youtube.com/user/VisitBlackpool#p/u/1/Cnu80X0cK4M both
getting national media coverage and winning numerous awards. Momentum was maintained by the
appointment of Sir Howard Bernstein, chief exec of Manchester City Council, as part-time chairman of
the ReBlackpool urban regeneration company. Timing also worked in the town’s favour when Modus
collapsed after the 400,000 sq ft Houndshill shopping centre had opened following redevelopment. The
Government’s emergency board set up as consolation for the super-casino failure reports periodically
and promises intervention in the town’s problematic ‘costa del dole’ benefit tourism which creates
thousands of poor quality, high value, houses of multiple occupancy. Muse Developments is steadily but
surely getting on with plans for the 35-acre Talbot Gateway scheme which went in for planning in
December 2009.
Bolton
North Manchester’s biggest draw is holding its own despite competition from Bury and, to a lesser
extent, Rochdale. Warner Estate Holdings' enlarged and revamped Bolton Market Place opened in
autumn 2008. Market Place and Warner’s Middleton Shopping Centre have performed well. Bolton
along with Stockport has the largest office market of the ten Greater Manchester towns but has failed to
bring new grade A product forward in the town centre. Orbit dominates with its out of town Middlebrook
offices and new stock is needed more centrally. The NWDA will need to intervene to kick-start Ask and
Bluemantle’s plans for the town centre, which has been very quiet this year.
Bury
Next year will be Bury’s to lose. It has a big public prelet offices, a rare big retail centre opening, a
progressive local authority. The £350m 1.6m sq ft The Rock retail project by Thornfield opens in the
summer of 2010 and is set to be a mini-Liverpool One: same open air streets, same masterplanner in
BDP and contractor in Laing O’Rourke. Thornfield says the 500,000 sq ft of retail will open more than
90% let, anchored by M&S, Debenhams, Next, River Island, Primark, H&M and Peacocks. Bury will
leap from 167th to 62nd in the CACI Centre Futures league of UK retail destinations, the research outfit
predicts. Bury Council has forward funded Ask’s Knowsley Place over the road from The Rock and
Alliance is hopeful of starting soon on offices at Chamberhall, where it has consent for 95,000 sq ft.
Liverpool
The fact the hardest and coldest Mancunians say Liverpool One is too good for Liverpool, speaks
volumes. Only Grosvenor could have finished the job in one phase and to such a quality, has been the
consensus ringing through the city this year. A RIBA Stirling Prize nomination for its master-plan alone,
by BDP, the first time this has ever been done, only underlines its importance in the renaissance of
Liverpool. The city centre has flourished since the grand opening of Liverpool One on 1 October 2008.
Grosvenor manages the 42-acre area with panache and constant entertainment from dancers in bauble
costumes at Christmas to a chocolate festival at Easter. The Hilton hotel opened behind schedule in
November 2009 after contractor Kier hit snags. The hotel was sold to Ability for a reported £60m, part of
£100m of sales at the scheme this year. Grosvenor said footfall was up 30% in the first year.
Nevertheless, it has lost nearly £300m on the scheme to date. Along with the popular Arena &
Convention Centre it has helped reinvigorate the Albert Dock, which has been repositioned not for retail
but leisure. The new canal link and forthcoming Museum of Liverpool and Mann Island have made the
waterfront a great place to be again. The city’s office take-up still relies on the public sector for big
deals. A 200,000 sq ft letting to the UK Border Agency is expected to be completed any day. The year
started with a 140,000 sq ft to transport authority Merseytravel.
Manchester
The engine room of the north-west would be worthy of being the capital city of many European
countries. Takeover of Manchester City by Abu Dhabi investors sets up mouth-watering prospect of
major investment in the area around City of Manchester Stadium in 2010. The city leaders’ focus on the
fringe of the city centre continued, with £500m of projects starting on site in East Manchester in 2009.
Greater Manchester Police signed for 240,000 sq ft at Ask Goodman’s Central park. The council did
Ask’s First Street a favour with a temporary relocation of 140,000 sq ft. The council will remodel Albert
Square and St Peter’s Square in a £165m project lasting several years. The architects have been
appointed for the first phases. The Oxford Road corridor was another major focus of the council’s
energy with planning granted for a major new campus for Manchester Metropolitan University and the
much-needed removal of cars from Oxford Road – the busiest bus route in Europe – imminent to
protect the thriving university district from choking. Some say Manchester is getting too big for its own
boots, with the fight to take the National Football Museum from Preston doing it few favours. Certainly,
being a serious north-west business means having a front door in Manchester, which accounts for 80%
of the region’s GDP. The city centre office take-up won’t fall far short of the 900,000 sq ft five-year
average despite only a couple of deals over 50,000 sq ft, signalling a deeper occupier market than
Leeds and Birmingham.
Rochdale
Struggled to get over the embarrassment of having to re-run the town centre contest after a legal
challenge from one of the runners-up. The second contest attracted few takers and was one by
newcomer Genr8, headed by former Amec chairman John Early. Rochdale Borough Council did its best
to gloss over the issue with a new central master plan that includes a new pedestrianised Town Hall
Square, designed to be the largest public square in England, suitable for events and with a water
feature. There will also be a series of new buildings aimed at cultural uses between Hopwood Hall
College and the Town Hall. The council is planning a new main office for 2,000 staff on a two-acre
riverside site and construction is due to start next summer with the building opening in autumn 2012. As
well as providing access to most council services in one place, the new building will include a public
library and information centre and a training centre. It is also expected to include a mixed retail and
commercial offer, which could include bars, cafes and restaurants. The council said it expects more
than £50m savings to be made over 30 years through reduced maintenance costs at the new building,
replacing 33 sites around the town. Wilson Bowden failed to set the world alight at the 500-acre
Kingsway business park, but did sign US occupier, CR Laurence, to a 71,000 sq ft, to consolidate from
nearby premises.
Wigan
The huge £150m PFI Wigan Life centre presses on well. The centre will house a swimming pool, library,
health and learning services as well as council offices. Contractor Morgan Ashurst is on site now. In
May ‘09 the Grand Arcade by Modus and Ciref went into administration and was later bought out by JV
partner Ciref. Work started over the summer on the long-awaited former Bickershaw Colliery site near
Leigh in Wigan. Derelict land will be reclaimed to enable the development of up to 650 homes, a 40berth canal boat marina and over 20,000 sq ft of employment space, which will include high quality food
and drink venues.