Developer seeks EU cash for office plan

Manor Property Group wants £8.5m European Regional Development funding to refurbish the former Co-op building next to Bhs on the corner of Bond Street in the city centre. Offices there could house as many as 2,500 workers.

The developers say the £28m scheme could create 1,750 new jobs from large-scale office-based employers such as call centre operators. Although the city has many empty offices, they are not of the scale or quality needed for the development.

According to developers, the five-storey Manor Point building would be unique in Hull and one of only a few regionally to offer the office space in a city centre. The application has been submitted to regional development agency Yorkshire Forward.

Bill Addy, of Manor Property Group, said: “Yorkshire Forward recognises the huge potential of this development to meet the growing UK demand for larger space accommodation with high quality services, which will help attract contact centre operations to the region, and especially Hull.”

About 11,000 sq ft of recently-built office space at 2 Humber Quays is still to be let, out of 35,000sq ft. But backers say the new floor space would be at least four times bigger.

Agent Malcolm Scott said: “We’ve had call centre operators dismiss Hull in the past because we haven’t had the accommodation to fit into. We’ve had so many initiatives to train people but we’ve never has the office product to accommodate a national relocation and large scale inward investor.”

However, former planning committee chairman Councillor John Fareham said: “I’m a bit surprised when the tendency has been to move to office space on Priory Way. It does surprise me – it’s a little alarming that they think it will only stack up with a sizeable amount of European funding.”