Public Private Partnership
Mayfield, Manchester
An integrated part of one of the most progressive cities in the world turning a former industrial heartland into a transformational mixed-use city centre regeneration project.
Mayfield is a 24-acre brownfield site packed with heritage and the River Medlock flowing through its core. The site has an industrial history of innovation spanning back to the 1700’s with previous lives as a parcel depot, relief railway station and textile mill. The site was derelict for over 30 years before the next phase of its revival began.
Driving the change is The Mayfield Partnership – comprised of U+I, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester and LCR – which formed in 2016 with a shared vision to deliver a modern neighbourhood at the heart of Manchester. Overall, Mayfield will provide over 2.3m sq ft GIA office space facilitating 16,000 new jobs, 1,500 homes, over 200,000 sq ft of retail and leisure, a new 650-bed hotel and 13-acres of public realm, including Mayfield Park – the city’s first new park in over 100 years.
Following its opening in September 2022, Mayfield Park has become a much-loved green asset in Manchester city-centre, enjoyed by visitors old and young! The park, designed by Studio Egret West, is a new green oasis for the city and enhances the heritage of the site with two key anchors being the early 20th century Depot and the newly-daylighted River Medlock, one of Manchester’s founding rivers. In total there are 140 trees, thousands of bulbs, plants and shrubs, a children’s play yard with six slides, and lots of spaces to sit and relax. During the construction of the park over 230 tonnes of CO2 were saved through reuse methods by utilising Victorian wells and hogback beam structures found on site.
The next phase of the first commercial buildings will begin late in 2023 and will include two office buildings and a mobility hub.
Since day one of the Mayfield Partnership, the site’s heritage assets have been opened up to the city through a curated programme of placemaking-led events and projects. In 2019, Broadwick Live took a five-year tenancy, with a brief to deliver a series of worthwhile events. Since then it has welcomed over 1.6 million guests to a host of cultural moments including the Warehouse Project nights which has been voted recently as the ‘World’s Best Nightclub’.
The remaining phases of Mayfield will be developed over the next decade, and are expected to generate in the region of £7bn of socio-economic gain – creating a thriving and exciting neighbourhood for all Mancunians to enjoy.
