All change on city’s Library Theatre plan

A MAJOR new cultural facility will help unlock up to 10,000 jobs in a key regeneration area in Manchester city centre.

The Cornerhouse Arts Centre — run by Mossley man Dave Moutrey — and the Library Theatre Company will join forces in a purpose-built £19 million new home in First Street, a new development area which runs behind Oxford Road station and the Green Room theatre back to the Mancunian Way.

The current Cornerhouse building is yards from the site

The new plan completely changes the scheme to redevelop the Theatre Royal for the Library Company — which left its Central Library basement home a few months ago in anticipation of a four-year plan to house it in the city’s oldest theatre, just yards away in Peter Street.

Surveys since then have resulted in estimates for the cost of the move to the existing theatre — last in use as a disco — soaring beyond available funds.

This new cultural destination will act, say planners, as a powerful catalyst to the regeneration of the 20-acre First Street site and neighbourhood, bringing the area to life, attracting other leisure and retail investment and giving it the “strong sense of place” it currently lacks.

These changes will help stimulate the development of around 1.25 million sq ft of commercial floorspace to meet growing demand as Manchester recovers from the economic downturn.

The building will boast up to five cinemas, 600 sq m of contemporary gallery space, a 500-seat theatre and smaller studio/education space and an outdoor performance space and a café.

Cornerhouse is constrained by its current buildings — a former furniture store in Oxford Street – and the new facility will provide expansion and improvement.

The new facility is likely to open in spring 2014.