NOMA: living and working in the regenerated city

NOMA is a £800 million, 20-acre mixed-use redevelopment scheme in Manchester and is the largest of its kind in the north-west of England. It began in the early 2010s. It is focused upon the northern part of the city centre, which has not seen the same level of redevelopment as other parts have. The development, which is backed by the Co-Op, will see 4 million square feet of office, residential, retail, leisure and hotel space created. The estate comprises 19 assets. Standing at its centre is the fantastic One Angel Square, which opened in 2013 and stands at 236 ft tall. The name NOMA was formed from a convergence of its global geographical location at 53° (used in its logo) North, and its location, Manchester.

This is the description to be found on their website:

“We are committed to creating an innovative, commercially-driven and responsibly-designed neighbourhood that offers outstanding connectivity, embraces its rich heritage and keeps people and community firmly at its heart. The 20-acre masterplan is creating new homes, offices, hotels, shops, restaurants and bars around vibrant urban spaces and public realm.”

Manchester has seen a very high level of redevelopment for a quarter of a century now; specifically, since the IRA bomb in June 1996, with around £1 billion spent between then and the end of the century on regeneration. Billions more have been ploughed into a variety of projects since, with NOMA being one of them, of course.

Redfern building. Photo: Stephen Richards/licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

According to a 2019 report entitled NOMA: The Economic and Social Story So Far, over £210m in wages and £380m in Gross Value Added is generated by NOMA each year, with Manchester council also benefitting from a further £4m in annual business rates revenue. There were 5,500 people working in the area as of two years ago. The report argues that NOMA is emerging as a leading innovation district, hosting a selection of new and diverse businesses, particularly creative, digital and technology. To quote the report:

“The standout successes to date is the redevelopment of Federation. Nearing full occupation, Federation is now home to ‘The Federation’ – a wide range of small start-ups through to national and international businesses operating in the digital, tech and creative sectors.”

Of particular interest to us, of course, is the design and construction of buildings in the area. Much attention has been given to environmental sustainability and heritage preservation. It’s worth quoting the report again at length as it gives a picture of the scale of redevelopment:

“Progress in the development and regeneration of NOMA has not been at the pace that was originally anticipated since 2009/10. There are several reasons which have contributed to this, including the wider effects of the financial crisis and a fall in investor confidence post-recession. To date, only around a third of the buildings or development plots identified within the NOMA masterplan area have been developed or are occupied, while several of the surface car parks remain operational.

Nonetheless, there has been clear momentum injected to the regeneration process in recent years with refurbishment of other historic buildings underway and proposals developing for new commercial buildings adjacent or near to 1 Angel Square.”

The development pipeline includes 2, 3 & currently on site 4 Angel Square.

Throughout, there has been an intelligent and sensitive contrast between the modern and the historic. To use 1 Angel Square as the obvious example, which is one of the largest buildings in Europe to receive an ‘Outstanding’ rating in its BREEAM assessment. Hanover, described below, has achieved ‘very good’ status. The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (BREEAM) is very important. It is a sustainability assessment of new build and refurbishment projects within the built environment. The process itself is a holistic assessment of the sustainability of a construction project. The average CO2 saving for a BREEAM assessed building is 22%, whilst a BREEAM Excellent building is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 33%. Though it’s not all positive in building terms: there was initially a plan for a local energy centre, which it has not been possible to build.

One Angel Square. Photo: Rept0n1x/licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

As well as Federation, which was mentioned above, three other wonderful historic buildings have been redeveloped and brought back into use: Redfern, Hanover and Dantzic. Redfern is on Hanover St and is part of the Co-op estate. It was built in 1936 in the Art Deco style; specifically, its Dutch variant. As of the last year, it is home to the National Probation Service, which puts a major public sector employee at the heart of NOMA. The Hanover building on Corporation St was constructed between 1905 and 1907 and is in the Edwardian Baroque style. It has WeWork, who provide flexible shared working spaces for start-ups as one tenant and Amazon as its other.

Hanover building. Photo: Stephen Richards/licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The Dantzic building, on the street of the same name, was built between 1937 and 1942 and is also in the Art Deco style. It houses a variety of businesses. All three buildings were refurbished in the last decade as part of the NOMA scheme. The Federation building, built on Balloon St between 1913 and 1914 in the Classical style, is the only one of the former Co-op buildings that is not listed. It’s home to a community of investors.

The development makes much of the idea that developments are better when people are involved in making them. With this in mind, social and environmental responsibility is at the heart of what NOMA does. This can be seen not just with the refurbishment of historic buildings, but with the ring road improvements, consequent reduction of traffic flows and congestion, and increase of public realm space. The latter has seen the opening of Sadler’s Yard, named after James Sadler, who in 1785 undertook one of the first manned balloon flights from Balloon St.

The story of NOMA will run and run, of course. More buildings will be refurbished, more start-ups accommodated, and more public realm opened. To cite the report once more:

“The foundations are now in place for NOMA to continue its transformation and to support Manchester’s future growth agenda, particularly in priority sectors such as digital, tech and creative sectors, as well as in creating an increasingly mixed-use neighbourhood within the City Centre”.