Major media occupier The Farm Group has confirmed it will open a 25,000 sq ft facility at The ABC Buildings, which are part of Allied London’s Enterprise City cluster for creative, tech and digital industries.

The Sixties architecture and characteristics of The ABC Buildings are being re-adapted to create a leading media hub in the heart of Manchester’s city-centre, complementing the existing ‘Old Granada’ television studios at St. John’s, which are being redeveloped and operated by ALL Studios. This cluster of studios and production facilities will create a new centre of excellence for media in the north.

While substantial renovation work is underway on The ABC Buildings, Farm Manchester is being located in The Riverside facility, also operated by ALL Studios, just next door to The ABC Buildings, which has 12 offline and two online suites, grading, and audio capability.

Of the new occupier, Michael Ingall, Allied London’s chief executive, said: “We set up All Studios in 2017 to revive the iconic television studios at St. John’s, since then we’ve seen a huge demand for city-centre media facilities and we’ve welcomed the likes of BBC, Netflix and Amazon to the site. The Farm Group’s move to The ABC Buildings – one of our key media hubs at Enterprise City – is of massive significance for the cluster and growing proof that the north will be an international destination for content production and talent.”

He added: “The media industry is expanding rapidly as online content companies like Netflix and Amazon continue to disrupt how we buy, stream and receive media content. Our vision for Enterprise City will support these evolving industries to continue to grow in both scale and importance.”

Farm Manchester is in full flow completing the post production on the next series of Ambulance for Dragonfly and about to start on series seven of Real Housewives of Cheshire for Monkey.

Paul Austin, managing director of Farm Manchester, told us: “The news about the Farm setting up in Manchester created a real buzz and we had many clients that wanted to work with us, before the big launch in October. Riverside is perfect for us as it allows us to work with some of these clients and start to build up work that can carry on and finish in the new building.”

Austin continued: “We have been blown away by the volume and quality of responses we have had so far, and the level of talent that want to work for the Farm in Manchester. As well as established industry leading local names, we are pleased that a lot of the approaches have come from new talent wanting to become the next big name, which fits exactly with what we want in terms of supporting and incubating the next generation of creative talent in the north west.”

In Farm Manchester’s new home at The ABC Buildings: offline, online, grade, VFX and audio facilities will be located on the same floor, along with a 40-seat screening theatre, and all facilities will be fully 4K/UHD SDR and HDR capable. One of the four audio suites will be equipped to handle any Dolby Atmos requirements. The development will also include a roof terrace above the facility, for use by all Farm Manchester clients and other tenants in The ABC Buildings.

David Klafkowski, Farm Group CEO, said: “Our relationship with Allied London is important to us as we share the same goal in establishing Manchester city centre as a world class creative hub.”

For more information about Enterprise City and The ABC Buildings, please visit the website.

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