This week, plans have been announced for an exciting new workspace in the city of Manchester. Due to be opened in Manchester city centre in the Ancoats area, it is going to be a business community created from old unused shipping containers. The company behind the scheme are
Meanwhile Creative, a property management firm. It is thought that they are looking to create an area on Pollard Street East that takes up around two acres and is made up of 300 individual shipping containers.
Who Are Meanwhile Creative?
The company behind the plans are well known for taking commercial space that is no longer used and turning it into something viable to be used. They have nine other sites throughout Cardiff and Bristol, which all offer affordable, flexible office space. Across these sites they currently support around 250 creative businesses, small businesses and entrepreneurs. Manchester is in definite need of affordable creative spaces and so Meanwhile Creative have stepped up to the challenge by announcing the opening of their first Manchester space.
Other Spaces
This isn’t the first time that Meanwhile Creative have made use of shipping containers to create something useful and modern. Their space in Cardiff also uses shipping containers and following on from that success, they started to look for a much bigger space. Their founder Fred Wyatt spoke of the company’s passion for providing affordable workspaces to all sorts of creative people. He felt that Manchester’s strong industrial history made it the perfect space for their next project.
Pollard Yard
When it opens at Pollard Yard, the space will offer monthly rolling contracts including bills. Each container will be private to allow companies their own space – lined with chipboard, double doors for plenty of light and an abundance of plug sockets, they will have everything any new creative needs. It is expected that they will open with approximately 30 spaces and then in 2019 will create a further 300 containers, in addition to shared facilities and event space.
