ALLIED London, has announced plans to immediately transform part of the former Granada site in Manchester city centre into a new media hub when it takes control of Old Granada Studios on Sunday 1 June. This will include a rooftop media bar.
The initial building will include places to meet, chat, hold events, talks and launches, together with dedicated areas, which have been designed to allow businesses to interact and work together.
Allied London intends to introduce substantial media, technology and innovation propositions to the area as part of its short, medium and long terms plans.
The Granada HQ extension building will be transformed into a dedicated media industry workspace and branded Hello House.
It will provide workspace to media start-ups through to established businesses and broadcasters. A number of early adopters have already confirmed they will be moving in on day one, including Echo PR, Manchester Confidential, Journey9, a radio station, plus two new media start-ups.
Michael Ingall, chief executive at Allied London, said: “We have been supporting a number of young start-ups and early growth media companies in Spinningfields, which we are now going to relocate into Hello House, creating a hub for PR, marketing and media companies. More importantly, we aim to establish a media, tech and innovation proposition at Old Granada that we will nurture and support. We hope that this will become embedded in our long-term development plans.
“The initial building will include places to meet, chat, hold events, talks and launches, together with dedicated areas, which have been designed to allow businesses to interact and work together. It will include a media roof bar and social club designed for press launches and events, which may be opened to the public at weekends.
“We’re investing a lot of energy and resource into this project and all that we ask in return is that the people moving in commit to working together and help us create something that can grow organically around the businesses that come here. Manchester has some great media tech and innovative businesses, some of which will need support to develop.
Ingall continued: “Following on from our successful development of MediaCom’s new headquarters, together with companies such as Outsourcery, Great Fridays, Yahoo and Worldpay, all now based in Spinningfields, we’re increasingly looking to work with the media and tech industries."
Given the former nature of the building the 'hub', being created within this development, seems wholly appropriate. Let's hope as Ingall hopes, that this can be the start of something big for Manchester's already well-established media community. The name of the building will take some getting used to but you can see what the marketing team are trying to achieve. Just.
And there's a lot to live up to. For a couple of decades Granada was the most important independent TV company in the country, World in Action, Brideshead Revisited, Prime Suspect, Cracker, Cold Feet, Coronation Street, University Challenge, Stars In Their Eyes, The Jeremy Kyle Show...you know what we mean. Should be exciting.
For Phil Griffin's superb look back at Granada TV read this article.
That old sign all stored and safe on site
