Joint venture agreed for Manchester Airport

A project worth £800 million (€943 million) at the UK’s Manchester Airport will be undertaken by a joint venture including UK contractor Carillion, and Chinese building and engineering firm Beijing Construction Engineering Group (BCEG), along with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF).

Manchester Airports Group (MAG) said that Airport City would be the core element of the government-designated enterprise zone surrounding the UK’s third busiest airport.

Outline planning permission for Airport City was secured at the start of this year, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, marked the official start on site at the end of May. He announced the joint venture partners this week while in Beijing, China, on a trade mission. MAG launched its search for joint venture partners at the end of 2012.

The Airport City project will provide 465,000m² of development, a mix of offices, hotels, manufacturing, logistics and warehousing.

Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG, said, “The inclusion of BCEG is significant because, as a group, we have been keen to forge greater links with the Far East and this gives us an opportunity to strengthen vital business links with China.”

It is felt that Airport City will be one of the largest regeneration schemes in the UK since the Olympics redevelopment in East London. Manchester Airport is currently used by over 20 million passengers annually, and has flights to more than 200 global destinations.

In 2012, the UK and China set a target of growing bilateral trade to $100 billion (€74 billion) by 2015, with Chinese investment into the UK standing at around $8 billion (€6 billion) at that time. The Airport City deal is said to present one of the biggest joint venture investments into the UK. BCEG is a leading construction and engineering company in China and is already active in global markets, particularly in the US.

Xing Yan, managing director of BCEG International Co, said, “To be part of a project of this size and scale, working alongside other such highly regarded organisations, will be an exciting, challenging and rewarding opportunity, which we look forward to beginning.

“We see our involvement in Airport City as an extension of the memorandum of understanding between China and the UK, where we have been looking to explore further joint infrastructure opportunities for some time.”

Development manager

UK-based Argent has been appointed by the joint venture as development manager for the scheme. It has been responsible for the regeneration of over 27ha of brownfield land at King’s Cross in London, as well as projects in Manchester such as One Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly Place, and most recently, One St Peter’s Square.

GMPF is the pension scheme for the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester and a host of other bodies, such as schools, colleges and charities. It is also part of the nationwide pension scheme for local authorities.