A former showroom known for the sale of Jaguars and Land Rover is about to become short- and medium-term offices through Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).
The university has been allowed to convert the empty construction of Williams into Birchall Way in Hulme, which stretches along 16,400 feet, into transit offices.
The area will be used through the MMU Department of Domains and Facilities, which is lately located in the University’s John Dalton West and All Saints buildings in the city center.
According to plans proposed through Manchester City Council, the construction will also be used as a transit garage area for campus furniture moving from the constructions being remodeled.
Overlooking Princess Parkway, the construction of the showroom was used as Williams’ showroom from 1999 to 2019, when the company moved about 240 workers to its new 41 million pound facility at TraffordCity.
The new three-story showroom spans 14 acres and includes more than 70 vehicles, including showrooms dedicated to Mini, Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles.
MMU worked with Deloitte Real Estate on the plan development consultation for the Birchall Way site, while Bowker Sadler Architecture designed the project.
Proposals for Birchall Way mean that when the dismantlings are permanently relocated, the old showroom will be redeveloped as a component of MMU’s genuine real estate portfolio in the Oxford Road corridor.
According to the Oxford Road Corridor Strategic Regeneration Framework Guide, via Deloitte in September 2019, the construction of the old exhibition corridor is a component of a wider stretch of land on Birccorridor Way, consisting of a giant parking area.
Parking is known as a “long-term progression opportunity.”
“The remaining sites along Princess Drive are longer-term regeneration opportunities that can evolve over the next 10 years,” says the third-class report.
The progression has been reserved for university expansion, advertising and/or residential uses that aim to “contribute to the creation of a balanced residential progression in the Hulme area”.
According to Manchester City Council’s “basic strategy” policy, 20% of all residential progression on site will have to contribute to the creation of affordable housing.
Birchall Way is close to MMU’s Oxford Road and its Birley Fields campus, home to the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, which opened in 2014.
A new 130,000-square-foot residential student program at Birley Fields is in progress and is expected to be completed by spring 2021.
The 491-bed program will come with 3 housing blocks for 6,11- and 16-story students and is also a component of the Oxford Road Corridor.
A partnership between MMU, the University of Manchester, Manchester Council, NHS Foundation Trust and the personal sector, Oxford Road Corridor spans 600 acres from St Peter’s Square to Hulme and accounts for 20% of the city’s economic activity.