If given the green light, the project would constitute a fifth phase of the £800 million NOMA regeneration effort, which is already substantially reshaping a large area of the city centre.
The Co-operative Group has long had a prominent presence on the northern edges of Manchester’s city centre. The first part of the NOMA initiative involved developing what will soon be its new £100 million headquarters at 1 Angel Square.
The proposed redevelopment of the Grade II-listed Hanover Buildings, where several Co-op Travel employees are currently based, will not be on the same scale as 1 Angel Square but should deliver roughly 100,000 sq ft of central Manchester offices and 30,000 sq ft of retail space. Staff will continue to work from the Hanover site for the time being while the relevant authorities examine the Co-Op’s plans closely.
“This is a really important milestone for NOMA and marks the beginning of phase five of the programme,” said David Pringle, director of the NOMA project. “The plans are a brilliantly creative use of one of our heritage buildings and the first step in unlocking the potential of the group’s current Manchester complex.”
The Co-Op Group’s new headquarters on Angel Square is expected to be officially opened in September 2012. According to the Manchester Evening News, the redevelopment of the Hanover Buildings is anticipated to create around 900 jobs in the area, a third of which should be permanent.
Editor’s notes: Up-to-date information on NOMA, as well as the Co-Op’s unveiling of its arena, Co-Op Live, the largest arena in the UK, can be found in this article.
In May 2026, it was reported that MCR Property Group had purchased the CIS Tower, which sits in the heart of the NOMA neighbourhood and is close to the MCR Property Group’s Gould Street development site.
The 1960s Grade II-listed 650,000-square-foot tower was the former headquarters of the Co-Operative Insurance Society and Manchester’s first skyscraper.
The building was completed in 1962 and stands 118 metres (387 feet). As of January 2026, it was the 18th-tallest office building in Greater Manchester and the tallest office building in the UK outside the capital.
In 2004, CIS worked with Solarcentury to clad the tower with solar panels. The project cost £5.5 million and generated approximately 180,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. At the time of completion, it was the largest solar façade in Europe.
At the time of the 2026 acquisition, the building had been vacant for several years, during which several redevelopment proposals had been put forward.
MCR Property Group advised that it planned to create a modern and sustainable future for the CIS Tower, one of the most recognisable structures in Manchester and the UK.