Member Article

Chester business leaders advise invest in city now

Leading business figures across Chester have expressed that now is the time to invest in the city.

Representatives from Chester law firm DTM Legal, Chester Business School, GBG Group, Chester Zoo and Bank of America Merrill Lynch met at Muse Development’s One City Place in the city centre to discuss the way forward for the city.

The group agreed that Chester is continuously improving with business accommodation on the up and a renewed focus on growth changes, but it must continue to develop its commercial and leisure offering to ensure people want to settle in the city.

Chester has previously had a limited offering of grade A office space, but now has a wealth of options for both large and smaller businesses. It also has the ability to benefit from an increased talent pool as it sits within a network of high-quality universities, including Chester, Liverpool and Manchester, which has an output of more than 30,000 graduates.

Richard Thomas, partner at DTM Legal, said: “Now is the most exciting time in Chester’s history. The city’s corporate offering is continuously developing and it is quickly becoming widely renowned as a central hub for business.

“Chester has a thriving and competitive workforce which continues to drive forward growth, however to ensure its workforce is sustainable, business and leisure offering in Chester needs to come together. It is great having new grade A offices, but we must continue to develop our leisure offering in order to ensure people want to come and live here and that students stay here after graduation.”

The city’s leisure offering has seen a number of large investments including the £40 million Islands development – the biggest zoo development in the UK and the soon to open new theatre complex. The city’s commercial offering is improving with the completion of One City Place, but the group of business leaders agreed the city’s offering needs more focus as it continues to develop.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bernard Stuart .