The Oxford Road Corridor will see a £2.8 bn investment to 2025. This growth in the Knowledge Economy is driving the economic fortunes of the city as the heart of the Northern Powerhouse.

Find out more about some of our most recent developments below:
Central Library re-opened its doors in March 2014 following a full refurbishment. Its heritage features were restored, and new accessible spaces, facilities and resources have been added to increase access to knowledge, nurturing creative talent and helping to boost the regional economy. The transformed venue is now engaging and empowering the city’s diverse communities with world class information services fit for the 21st century, including Archive+ a one-stop resource centre.
Circle Square will be a £750m mixed use development by Bruntwood on the site of the former BBC building on Oxford Road. It will offer office space, retail, luxury apartments and private accommodation, and communal/performance space.
There are five phases to this project, the final phase due to be completed in 2025.

​
Manchester Metropolitan University's recently AACSB accredited Business School is among the top 5 per cent in the world. In addition, the £139million Birley campus opened in October 2014 and is home to the Faculties of Education, and Health, Psychology and Social Care. Manchester School of Art’s £35million Benzie Building was nominated for the UK’s highest architectural accolade, the Stirling Prize. The new £10 million Student's Union building opened in 2015 with a major concert and performance venue.
The £7.1m refurbishment of the Concert Hall at the Royal Northern College of Music completed in November 2014, includes new heating, air-conditioning, new flooring and seating, advanced technical facilities and lighting, in addition to a balcony and raised floor area. The backstage production spaces of both the Concert Hall and RNCM Theatre has also been reconfigured to support increased student numbers and provide a professional learning environment at industry standard.
The University of Manchester's Campus Masterplan is designed to create a single campus and world-class facilities for staff and students through £1bn investment.  The £61m National Graphene Institute is opened its doors in March 2015. A £60m Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre will enable the acceleration of applied R&D in partnership with other research organisations and industry. A new £300m Manchester Engineering Campus Development will be the largest capital project ever undertaken at the University. The existing Manchester Business School will be redeveloped in collaboration with Bruntwood to include a new Hotel and Executive Education Centre, and a £235m Sir Henry Royce Advanced Materials Institute will be a world-leading centre for materials research and will put science at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse.
Manchester Museum, winner of the 2015 Lever Prize, is undergoing a £11.5m development which will include a new South Asia gallery and outdoor space for visitors to enjoy. The new gallery is the first of its kind in the UK and will open in 2020. The gallery is part of a wider capital scheme at Manchester Museum which will include a large temporary exhibition space, a new entrance and expanded public facilities.
Contact Theatre awarded provisional stage 1 capital funding of £3.85 million by Arts Council England to transform their building, towards a £6m remodelling of the existing building to transform the visitor experience. It is anticipated that the overall capacity will increase by around 300 sq m. The project is expected to be completed in 2018.
Manchester Science Partnerships plans to triple its campus from the current provision of 350,000 sq ft to 1 million sq ft of space by 2018, including a new  60,000 sq ft Bright building, a hub designed for collaboration between entrepreneurs, inventors, researchers and businesses.
City labs 1.0 is a £25m flagship redevelopment by Manchester Science Partnerships of the city’s former Royal Eye Hospital into 100,000 Sq ft of bespoke-built biomedical facilities. It is a prime location, within Europe’s largest clinical academic campus comprising Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) and The University of Manchester. Citylabs was opened officially by The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, in September 2014 and offers high-specification flexible laboratory and office space.
The Whitworth  reopened its doors to the public in February 2015 following a £15m transformation into a 21st century 'Gallery in the Park'.
The redevelopment, which has been supported by a major Heritage Lottery Fund grant, The University of Manchester and other funders, has doubled public space and created state-of- the-art new facilities including expanded gallery spaces, Study Centre, Learning Studio and Collections Centre. A new Art Garden and an Orchard Garden designed by Chelsea gold medalist Sarah Price (co-designer of the 2012 Olympic Park gardens in London) includes exhibition space extending beyond the gallery walls, and outdoor sculptures.
A £50m collaboration between Nuffield Health and Manchester Metropolitan University to develop the Elizabeth Gaskell site was announced in 2014. A new state-of-the-art hospital and wellbeing centre on Hathersage Road is undergoing development and is due for completion in 2018. The work of the Nuffield-Manchester Met partnership will include collaborations on research and development, training for local healthcare professionals and fitness, with wellbeing and sickness prevention which will benefit the local community.