Major redevelopment plans for the building which houses the Manchester city centre branch of Debenhams have now been revealed.
In the newly-released plans published online, the Rylands Building on Market Street is to become new shopping arcade on the ground floor, while the bulk of the building will be transformed into offices.
Plans also include a proposed new four-storey rooftop extension.
The proposals have been published by the building’s owners AM Alpha – who say the extension is necessary “to make the proposals viable and financially support the required repairs and restoration of the building” – and a formal planning application is to be submitted in September.
AM Alpha purchased the building in 2017.
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The Art Deco landmark’s ground floor layout will be returned to its original 1930s configuration, by dividing it up into a number of smaller retail units, and the basement will house shopping, dining and leisure facilities that will all be accessed via a new escalator entrance on Tib Street.
The rest of the Grade II listed building is to be turned into offices, along with the additional four extra floors at the rear which will “bring life back to long underused parts of the building, particularly to the long neglected fifth, sixth and seventh floors”.
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AM Alpha
Martin Lemke – Managing Director of AM Alpha – said: “Since we bought the building we had the vision to transform this iconic landmark into a vibrant, fully occupied building with a long-term future.
“Now, we have set out our vision in the proposed plans.
“Once plans are approved, we can deliver a unique office environment at a pivotal gateway location between Manchester’s central core, Northern Quarter and Piccadilly which will attract larger independent office occupiers to Manchester’s city centre, promote job creation and support post-COVID economic bounce back.”
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Architect Jeffrey Bell added that: “The design approach for The Rylands Building seeks to balance a high degree of restoration of the building to its original appearance and to acknowledge and clearly reveal relevant changes that have affected the building during its life.
“The overall aim is to establish a genuine sense of place with the site’s valuable heritage asset at its heart.”
AM Alpha
Debenhams confirmed earlier in April that it would be collapsing into administration.
The struggling retailer announced 2,500 job losses this week, due to damaging effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and these redundancies follow wave of store closures since the beginning of the year, which saw nineteen branches shut in January and the confirmation that a further 28 would follow.
At least 15 of those branches have closed since then.
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The Manchester city centre branch has never been named as being at risk of closure, and the retailer stated yesterday that no new store closures were planned.
You can view the published plans in full and participate in the public consultation via the Future Rylands website here.
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Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
The Manc -
13th August 2020 
