Manchester’s Corn Exchange has endured a chequered history in recent years, but owner Aviva Investors is hoping a £30m redevelopment will turn around the fortunes of one of the city’s most iconic buildings.
The Corn & Produce Exchange, as it was originally known, opened in 1837 as a trading floor for corn – hence the name. The Victorian building was badly damaged by an IRA bomb in 1996 and later renovated and turned into a modern shopping centre called The Triangle (because of the building’s shape). But with competition from the Arndale Centre, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges just around the corner, the Triangle never fully flourished.
“It didn’t have the anchors or mix to attract shoppers out so far from the retail core, and they weren’t the right demographic to take those steps further,” says John Ogden, managing director of CBRE’s North West office.
However, in a pleasing near full-circle, the Corn Exchange is again set to become associated with food. The Grade II listed building is being transformed from a lacklustre shopping centre into an all-seasons venue with space for 17 new restaurants and a 114-bed hotel.
Stuart Harris, commercial director at development manager Queensberry Real Estate, put together the vision to transform the 200,000 sq ft building’s offer from retail to food.
Seven months since it reopened, 14 restaurants are already trading. They include Tampopo, Vaipano and London chains Wahaca, Pho and burger bar Byron. Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has also opened a new venture, called My Restaurant.
Units started opening in July, with most trading for Christmas.
“I’m very impressed with the results. It’s a clever use of the space as it’s very challenging working with a Grade II listed building,” says Warwick Smither of retail property experts Cheetham Mortimer.
Queensberry, which oversaw the lettings process through Metris Real Estate and Cushman & Wakefield, now has just three units left – two of which are going through the legal process and are due to open soon, with the final unit under offer.
So far so good on the lettings side, with rents thought to be around £50 per sq ft – among the highest in Manchester – but will it become the food destination it aspires to be?
“The Corn Exchange offers both evening and lunchtime trade, which is key to getting the footfall and vibrancy needed to be a success,” Ogden says. “There’s a good mix of bars and eateries. It’s offering something that Manchester hasn’t had in terms of street food.”
The scheme is certainly not the first food destination in Manchester. Leisure has, arguably, been the successful sector through the recession and recovery and there are already several emerging and established dining destinations such as Spinningfields, Deansgate and Printworks.
Colin Siebert of Colliers International says 30 new restaurants have opened in Manchester since last July, and further 20 to 30 are due to open.
“A lot of London restaurants are looking to acquire assets in Manchester,” he says.
However, he does have some reservations about the Corn Exchange. “I’m very impressed but I’m concerned that it is a little divorced from the business district. It remains to be seen how a pure food market will fare.”
Others argue that each dining hub has a unique offering and that they will complement each other. The nearby Printworks, for example, although a little tired now – it was developed in the 1990s – is primarily a night-time drinking area that typically attracts a younger crowd, while Spinningfields is more upmarket.
Ogden argues that the Corn Exchange won’t be in direct competition “It’s diverse rather than elitist. It’s more 2016. It is very on trend.”
And there is plenty of planned development nearby that will bring more residents and office workers into the area. Indeed Smither – who leased space to Hawksmoor, the upmarket steakhouse that opened its first branch outside London on Deansgate last year – says that all the planned development of offices, residential space and growing tourist and student numbers in the city “demonstrates continued buoyancy” and “latent demand”.
Proof of this can be found in the rise of restaurant rents in the city centre. Three years ago, values for a high-end, quality location in Deansgate were between £30 and £35 per sq ft, according to Smither. Now he says they have risen to between £50 and £55 per sq ft.
Similarly, he estimates values in The Corn Exchange would be around the same price, at between £50 and £55 per sq ft, which “may be slightly less with incentive packages”.
He adds: “There’s scope for further restaurant entries that can succeed and be viable without the cake being split. The long-term prognosis is that it will survive.”
