Wythenshawe - Changing landscapes - manufacturing to the service sector
A STRING of major developments underway in Wythenshawe is set to shift the emphasis of the area's business landscape away from the traditional manufacturing industry towards the booming service sector.
The projects have the potential to create around 4,000 permanent jobs during the next seven years and bring a huge amount of investment into an area crying out for a catalyst to its regeneration.
The scheme with the biggest impact on the area is the Manchester Business Park, off Altrincham Road, which has the potential to create more than 1,000 temporary jobs for builders and a staggering 3,000 permanent post by 2007.
Work began on the development in June this year and it will eventually provide up to 62,700sq m of new office space. The first two speculative and design and build developments are due to be completed in the autumn of 2001.
Also, further development of the Sharston Industrial Estate is projected to boost the number of jobs from 80 at present to 350 by 2004. A total of seven units are already complete and work on a further unit began in October this year.
Work at Sharston Green is also underway on a development to include new industrial and office units with plans for 180 homes and a 100-bed hotel and pub/restaurant. Two of these units have already been let creating 240 jobs and two further units are completed and currently under offer.
Also in the pipeline are negotiations for a further 40,000sqft unit.
The first phase of an office and warehouse development on Simonsway, The Atlas Business Park, is scheduled for completion next year and there are already plans afoot for second and third stage developments. Wythenshawe Partnership enterprise devlopment manager Glynis Roebuck said it was an exciting time.
"We obviously want to maximise the job opportunities for local people and we are currently working to do that," she said.
"The Wythenshawe Options Centre is our main mechanism for actively assisting people to get skills and find work and we are expecting to be very busy over the next few years.
Wythenshawe also happens to be home to a major international airport.
Owned by Manchester City Council and the other nine local authorities of Greater Manchester, it is probably the best modern example of a company which is both profitable and publicly owned.
A total of 16,000 people work in the 280 companies which are based there. Ready access to a successful airport is attracting major international companies to move to Wythenshawe and invest here.
Experts predict that by 2005 activity at the airport will create an additional 12,000 local jobs.
