The new district, regenerated under the name NOMA, is an £800 million project set to transform 20 acres of Manchester city centre’s heartland into a development providing 4 million square feet of office, retail, residential and leisure space.
The scheme is being built on land owned and assembled by The Co-operative Group, the world’s largest consumer co-operative, over a 10-15 year development programme.
The scheme has approval from the city authorities and is already underway, with construction of The Co-operative Group’s 400,000-square-foot new head office building, with completion of the BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ building scheduled for September 2012.
See an example of office space at NOMA here
Speaking today at MIPIM, Martyn Hulme, Managing Director of The Co-operative Estates, said NOMA will take advantage of The Co-operative Group’s unique land ownership in the city centre to deliver a regeneration project like no other.
Mr Hulme said NOMA will firmly position Manchester as the first choice for business in the UK outside London, building on existing clusters of global head offices, media enterprises, and professional and financial services.
One of the differentiating factors of this scheme will be that it will generate all its own power, with a renewable energy centre meeting all its needs through a smart grid.
Editor’s notes: As of May 2023, NOMA which represents the scheme’s location NOrth of MAnchester city centre, had enjoyed great success and has completed several pages of development and redevelopment including the completion of The Co-Operative’s head office, 1 Angel Square, the redevelopment of the Hanover Building which became Amazon’s Manchester office, the creation of a new public square, developing a hotel and other brand new sustainable office buildings.
In September 2022, Manchester City Council granted planning permission to The Co-Operative to develop two further brand new office buildings – 2 and 3 Angel Square, to complement the other two new developments at the scheme – 1 and 4 Angel Square.
It was reported in March 2026 that the global financial services firm BNY had acquired 4 Angel Square for £114 million.
The firm had initially signed a 15-year lease for the entirety of the 200,000-square-foot building in late 2024 to consolidate, but then opted to acquire the 11-storey, state-of-the-art, net-zero operational-carbon office building.
The building was awarded BREEAM Outstanding certification and a 5-star NABERS rating, and was classed as Manchester’s most sustainable and smart‑enabled office building,
At the time of the acquisition, it was the largest UK regional office deal of the past six years.
In April 2026, plans were being drawn up for the latest phase of NOMA and investment, development, and asset manager Federated Hermes MEPC had appointed CBRE and JLL as joint office letting agents for 2 Angel Square – the next office building to be brought forward in the masterplan.
At the time, the scheme was home to Adanola, Amazon Web Services, Arcadis IBI Group, The Co-operative Group, and the dBs Institute.
In May 2026, it was reported that MCR Property Group had purchased the CIS Tower, which sits in the heart of the NOMA neighbourhood.
Completed in 1962, it was Manchester’s first skyscraper. It was clad with solar panels in 2004 and generated approximately 180,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.