About Ask Development
INNOVATIVE. IMAGINATIVE. AWARD-WINNING. CREATIVE AND FLEXIBLE. ADVENTUROUS. A TRUSTED AND RELIABLE PARTNER.
Just some of the words with which people choose to describe Ask Developments, an independent company with an impressive reputation for delivering high-quality schemes in urban centres.
Since formation in 2000, Manchester-based Ask has built a formidable name for its lead role in multi-partner developments involving highly creative and bold concepts. The portfolio now comprises 20 separate projects with the capacity to deliver 8m sq ft of floorspace generating an end value of almost £2 billion.
Ask’s mission is to create places where people want to be – witness award-winning developments as diverse as Deansgate Locks in Manchester, Leopold Square in Sheffield and Central Park business park in Manchester, the UK’s first edge of city centre business park founded on innovation and knowledge transfer.
Projects under construction in the Ask portfolio include the St Petersfield urban business district in Ashton-under-Lyne, the Townside Fields mixed use quarter in Bury and retail centres in Gorton and Urmston.
Transformational mixed-use schemes in the pipeline include the redevelopment of Lancashire County Cricket Club’s Old Trafford ground, the former Boddington’s brewery in Manchester and strategic development sites at Greengate, Salford, and the 20 acre Central Spine, Manchester City Centre.
The partnership approach to mixed-use development is key to the Ask way of doing things. Adding value through partnership maximises potential benefits for all parties from stakeholders through to occupiers. It is the key to unlocking the maximum economic and social impact while simultaneously delivering best real estate performance.
Ask’s pioneering approach to urban regeneration is based on a deep understanding of local authority partners’ obligations and desired outcomes, and the company shares with its public sector stakeholders a sincere commitment to create sustainable communities underpinned by good design, innovation and high quality public spaces.
Ask is working in partnership with a number of local authorities, including seven in Greater Manchester, and in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
To facilitate its growth and rapid expansion, a major investment and development partnership was launched with Morgan Stanley Real Estate investment fund. Morgan Stanley Real Estate acquired a minority stake in Ask and a joint venture between the two companies was also created. The Ask Investment Fund has been established with £350m to invest in large scale projects. The Fund has recently made its first purchase, acquiring the former BT building in Manchester City Centre for £30m.
Ask is a young, forward-thinking and dynamic business which has worked hard to develop trust-based relationships with clients, suppliers and backers alike and is seeing rewards of that effort.
Ask was announced as the winner of the NW Business Insider magazine’s Commerical Developer of the Year 2006 award and Business of the Year in the Manchester Evening News Business of the Year Awards 2006. It was awarded the Property Week North West Commercial Developer of the Year 2007 and its subsidiary, Abito has won Residential Developer of the Year 2007 in the NW Business Insider Awards and Best New Build in the awards recently announced by the lifestyle magazine Concept for Living.
For further information on Abito click here.
For further details check out Ask Life Current Developments or call 0870 242 4499.