Espresso bar and nano brewery coming to new pop-up space at Manchester’s Oxford Road

A new retail and leisure pop-up space is coming to Oxford Road in Manchester.

The city council granted planning consent for the vacant courtyard area under the Mancunian Way flyover to be transformed into ‘Hatch’ – a venue offering pop-up and semi-permanent retail fixtures for aspiring entrepreneurs and established traders.

Created by property company Bruntwood, space at Hatch will be available on flexible terms alongside support from business planning through to delivery.

Independent coffee house Takk, based in the Northern Quarter, is confirmed as the site’s first customer.

The company will set up two 1,000 sq ft units at Hatch for its new concepts – an espresso bar and a nano brewery and bar called Öl.

Bruntwood said other opportunities across nine other units include four 80 sq ft food and beverage outlets and five retail units ranging from 80 sq ft to 240 sq ft.

Takk co-owner Philip Hannaway said: “We’re excited to bring two new concepts to Hatch, an espresso bar and also to introduce Takk’s baby brother Öl, a nano brewery and keg bar.

“Öl’s nano brewery is a collaboration with Byrne the Cake Brewery, and we can’t wait to serve our own brews alongside a selection of beers from some of the world’s best breweries.”

Hatch will be located next to Manchester Technology Centre at Circle Square, Bruntwood’s £750m joint venture with Select Property Group.

It is hoped the pop-up space will help establish the development as a leisure destination and boost the Oxford Road Corridor community.

Bruntwood retail surveyor James Tootle commented: “Now that Hatch has been granted planning permission we are excited to bring it to life at Circle Square.

“We look forward to welcoming Takk and Öl to the scheme and invite other operators, innovators and startups, to get in touch.”

He added: “Hatch will be the first step in providing a boost to the existing retail and leisure offer on the Oxford Road Corridor and transforming this area into a destination for people to visit.”

Hatch will open in December and be managed by the team behind Bruntwood’s Afflecks shopping emporium in the Northern Quarter.

Afflecks general manager Tony Martin said: “As we celebrate 35 years of successful trading at Afflecks, this is a great time to open up further opportunities to independent innovative traders in an exciting retail and leisure concept within an area with high footfall.”

Once complete, Circle Square will have delivered more than one million sq ft of commercial office space, 100,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space, 1,281 new homes, a multi-storey car park and two hotels.

Development work is already taking place on site. It is estimated that by early 2020, 60% of the masterplan will have been delivered.