Date: Wed 30th September, 2009
Venue:
Taking Stockport to the next level...
St Peter’s Square is a step up in class for Stockport’s commercial market. Insider and BAM Properties pulled in the business community to launch the town’s spectacular new building
With the property market in a state approaching shellshock, it’s not every day a new office building, especially one rated BREEAM Excellent, is opened. Least of all when it’s in Stockport, a town that hasn’t really seen any quality new build space for a long time.
Neil Mort, development manager at event sponsor BAM Properties, said the building has “brought Spinningfields quality to Stockport” ahead of a panel session featuring Oliver Robinson, commercial director of Frederic Robinson; Phil Basten, director of Co-operative Bank; Lorraine Lockie, managing partner of law firm Gorvins; and the ever-bullish leader of Stockport Council, Dave Goddard.
Before that though, came keynote speaker James Jennings, chief executive of Sale Sharks, who gave a polished run-through of the history of the club, its current ambitions and its ties with the business community. Jennings said that the club, owned by double glazing and property tycoon Brian Kennedy, is keen to work with the council to develop a modern stadium, either at current home Edgeley Park, or at other sites.
On the topic of the new rugby season, he spoke of the optimism engendered by new head coach Jason Robinson and how the club is keen to build further links with the business community. He said: “UKFast are a great example of a business we’ve worked with. They started by doing our website when they were a start-up and said ‘one day we’ll be shoirt sponsor,’ and this season they are.” The shirt deal with McAfee was the US IT security firm’s best pound-for-pound investment yet, he said.
Goddard kicked off the panel session with a rousing call to arms, saying Stockport beats all other Manchester boroughs “into a cocked hat” on investment. “If business has the courage to invest here, like Nike, like Co-operative, like Sale Sharks, like Robinsons brewery, like BAM Properties, then they will do well here, we will support them.”
His vision for the next major improvement is to the train station approach and how it links to the town centre past the landmark library, a project that Lockie agreed was a priority, along with retail. Robinson said: “There have been great improvements made in the town centre and we’re delighted to continue to invest here.”
With the Co-oprative Bank’s Smile arm being a key employer in the town’s fabled pyramid building, Basten said he’d been impressed by the proactive nature of the local authority: “We’ve backed several projects in the town centre here and have found the council to be keen to encourage development. There are some exciting plans.”
