Aviva Investors commits £300m to Manchester’s Enterprise City

Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva, has agreed to a long-term partnership with Allied London, a U.K. property investment and development company, to create Enterprise City at St John’s, Manchester’s newest city-center neighborhood.

The wider St John’s neighborhood development has a total investment value of over £1.25 billion ($1.6 billion).

Aviva Investors will initially commit £300 million ($385 million) to the project, which will be a key new addition to its existing Manchester real estate portfolio of almost £450 million ($577 million). The city is one of Aviva Investors’ core locations for its real estate platform due to its strong economic fundamentals. The city has four universities, a pool of highly-qualified labor, and its recent success has been built around thriving digital and knowledge industries with more than 62,000 jobs in the sector.

“This deal is fully aligned with our focused investment strategy and demonstrates our scale and expertise to fulfill large conviction-led investments in high-quality real estate assets,” said Daniel McHugh, managing director, real estate investments at Aviva Investors. “This scheme will deliver modern, vibrant space for enterprise and creative industries to thrive.”

Built on the former site of Granada television studios in the St John’s area of Manchester, immediately south of Spinningfields, Allied London and Aviva Investors will combine their experience and expertise to establish one of the United Kingdom leading digital, media and enterprise clusters.

Once completed, Enterprise City will comprise more than 1 million square feet of commercial mixed-use space, including workspace, TV and film studios, hotel/leisure, and various property infrastructure across 10 buildings. It will provide a place for modern industry in Manchester and become a community for the technology, digital, media and creative industries.

Enterprise City aims to provide spaces for start-ups and small and medium-sized entities; production facilities for media companies; and buildings designed to attract global brands and industry leaders. The development has already attracted technology giant Booking.com, which will be the anchor tenant at Enterprise City, taking 220,000 square feet at the Manchester Goods Yard buildings.

“Enterprise City is a concept Allied London has envisioned from scratch,” said Michael Ingall, Allied London owner and chief executive. “Within 18 months we have created something of significant value and importance for both Manchester’s business community and the wider north-west region. The transformation, re-adaption of old disused commercial buildings and a dynamic masterplan for new buildings was the catalyst for creating a new enterprise community for use by today’s modern industry.”

Manchester City Council approved planning permission for the Old Granada Studio development in May. The revised application supported Allied London’s plans to retain and refurbish the original television studios as well as incorporating new workspace elements. A new nine-story mixed use building will replace the old annex building and consist of retail units, workspace and residential space. Redevelopment of the Bonded Warehouse and the ABC buildings is also well under way, with new occupiers expected to take up workspace later in 2018.

As part of the funding partnership, Allied London’s new studios business, All Studios, will manage the multi-functional filming, production and studio facilities at Enterprise City. The Crystal Maze Studios, located on Lower Byrom Street, does not form part of the All Studios business and remains open to the public.