The £10m transformation of an amusement arcade into a hotel and retail complex is set to go ahead after a family feud was settled.
The court ruling means Nobles Amusements, in Piccadilly Gardens, will close and the five-storey site be converted in a Travelodge hotel, Waitrose store and Nando’s and Zizzi restaurants.
Work is set to start on the revamp in the spring, with the new tenants expected to be in place by the summer of 2013.
The project was placed in doubt by a dispute stemming from the death of one of two brothers who jointly owned the site and had the lease to run the ground-floor arcade.
After Michael Noble died in April 2006, the £100m Noble Group business was split between his widow Gill and brother Philip. Gill became owner of the building freehold, at 19-31 Piccadilly, while Philip became the ground-floor tenant.
But, in 2009, Gill’s firm Jolan Piccadilly said it planned to evict Philip’s amusements business, Crossco, to make way for the hotel, restaurants and mini-supermarket. Crossco applied to the High Court for an order to prevent it being kicked out until 2022. That was rejected, but Crossco took the case to the Court of Appeal. A trio of judges have now rejected the appeal.
Chris Dalzell, managing director of Associated Property Directors, the parent company of Jolan, told the M.E.N the arcade business would be evicted as soon as court clearance was received.
Mr Dalzell said: “It has been a difficult time, but sometimes you have to go through these things in business. We have been waiting to get cracking for some time, but we are now really excited to be able to make a start.
“We see this as an opportunity to take a rough-cut diamond and polish it into something that both we and the city can be proud of.
“We are committed to seeing that part of the city come back to life. That is already gradually happening and hopefully this will be another part of it.”
Mr Dalzell said the initial building work will start in the second quarter of this year and will take around 12 months. Once full fit-outs of the units have taken place, the businesses will be open by summer 2013.
Law firms Addleshaw Goddard represented Jolan in the court action and Pinsent Masons acted for Crossco.
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Any plans to do something with the horrendous Belin wall type structure. I want to knock the thing down everytime I see it.
Look forward to staying in the Travelodge when I'm in the City.
So Manchester centre to get it's 3rd Waitrose, 3rd Nandos and 2nd Zizzi all within 15 minutes of each other… Great just what we need.
If they do a Travel Lodge, it's not exactly what I'd want form an area that has a new hotel going up in Gateway house and the old employment exchange as well as the existing ones BUT it would be great to see the other floros used. Most of this building remains unused and it's a site of significance (the largest fire since WWII, the site that brought about changes to UK fire regs etc). Whatever happens I hope the lovely disco ball on the rooftop remains.
I wrote all about this building here
http://hayleyflynn.tumblr.com/post/3940897326/skyliner-2
Good. A bloody amusement arcade in our main public square is an embarrassing relic.
Not the most creative of new businesses but a definite improvement on the eyesore of the "amusement" arcade that seemed to attract drug dealers and and a pungent smell of cannabis during the darker hours .
Always was an eyesore in such a central place. Bring on the changes!
This is great news considering we are really short on supermarkets and hotels in the city centre!
Excellent new, more regeneration for Piccadilly, Will help lift the area up and help further regeneration of the Piccadilly area.
Would have been nice to have some more modern space for independent traders (a la Afflecks) rather than the same old chains you find in every other town/city.
BRING BACK PICCADILLY 21'S! :-)
What about an ice rink,a play centre or a creche type place? There's not much for little un's in the centre is there?!
Cracking. Another step to converting Manchester into Anytown UK. Bland, soulless, chain stores, restaurants and hotels covering 80-90% of our city already and here come a few more.
eeeek! bottom right-hand cormer of the pic i see a ghost sat down making a mobile phone call.
Great, if I can't be bothered going to the travelodge on Great Ancoats Street, I can save myself 2 minutes of walking by going to this one?!?!?
Going to be so easy to get a taxi to drop me off on Travelodge Picadilly Gardens (!) Damn buses think they own that street (!)
But on the positive side, nice to get rid of that Amusement Arcade though! and not have to go to the printworks for a Nandos .. or Oxford Road and whereever else they've recently appeared.
Nandos! Bring it on!!!!! At least it aint' a Tescos!
Good news on Waitrose; the small one on Bridge Street is great... hope this new one is a bit bigger. Finally, an alternative to Tesco/Sainos/Tesco/Sainos. Costs more - but worth it. (And if you don't like Waitrose, don't shop there.)
A complete lack of imagination once again from the MCC. Why has the go ahead been given for yet another Nandos, Zizzi, and Travel Lodge. What happened to the Northern Quarter being an independent district? There should be restrictions on this kind of lunacy.