by Alex Catalano
Manchester and Glasgow will be the first two UK cities to benefit from the Merlin treatment.
Merlin International Properties — set up in July to specialise in inner-city projects — have been chosen to develop the £100m second phase of the 27 acres next to the former Central Station in Manchester.
The £100m scheme will have retailing — including a “festival market-place” (Merlin’s trademark), entertainment, business and housing — linking the first phase of the Central Station redevelopment, the G-Mex exhibition centre, to existing shops in Deansgate. There will also be access to canals and the exhibition area in Castlefields, plus a connection with the proposed light transit railway running along one side of the site.
The company beat off 12 other companies in a competition organised by Central Station Properties, a public/private sector initiative set up in 1980 by the now-defunct Greater Manchester Council and Commercial Union.
In Glasgow, Merlin are teaming up with the Scottish Development Agency to create a specialist fashion and leisure centre in the historic Sheriff Courthouse building.
The listed building, originally Glasgow’s municipal hall, will be refurbished and redeveloped to provide 100,000 sq ft of shops and eating facilities as well as a fashion museum, exhibition area with catwalks, design and marketing studios, and a fashion resources library.
More retail and development expertise will be provided by Lawrence Cohen, of Tobacco Dock Developments, and Andrew Thomas, of Oasis Trading. Both have a stake in the project.
The SDA’s share will be the site and £3.5m, with Merlin putting in the remaining £11.5m of costs.
Building Design Partnership are the architects for the scheme, while James Barr & Son and King & Co are the joint agents.
