Member Article

£8 million refurb to turn old United Utilities HQ into high tech data centre

As part of an £8 million refurbishment, Octagon House, on Hathersage Road in Manchester, formerly the headquarters of United Utilities, is to be transformed into a high-tech data centre and prestige office complex, connected to The Loop fibre network.

The building is owned by property developer Richard Everton, who has been working on The Octagon Project for over a year.

Within the first phase of development, The Loop, Manchester’s unique fibre-optic network, will bring high-speed data connectivity to the 90,000 sq ft building, paving the way to accommodate a 350 rack, tier-3 datacentre, covering the entire first floor.

The refurbishment is due for completion during late 2016, with the first phase of the datacentre operational by the end of 2015.

The Octagon’s owner, Richard Everton said: “Our vision is for The Octagon to be integrated within and fully contribute to the future economic framework of the area.

“We are seeking to work closely with the City Council and all the Corridor partners to ensure this happens.

“Besides its many attributes it is fortuitous that the building is located on The Loop’s network so we can bring superb connectivity to our tenants.

“This will help give both the datacentre and our tenants’ businesses a distinct commercial edge in an increasingly competitive worldwide market. “

Managing Director of The Loop, Ashley Griffiths, said: “This is going to be a fantastic facility in a great strategic location.

“The Octagon has tapped into an existing resource that ran right past its door and created the ability to bring fibre and cost effective, very high capacity internet connection direct to its tenants.

“The project will thus provide additional benefits to the wider business, academic, health and residential communities and it’s great to be a part of this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .