City Tower

Image: © Gerald England Taken: 12 Jul 2013

According to Skyscraper News http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=164 City Tower (Originally Sunley Tower, constructed in 1965) is part of Piccadilly Plaza, which consists of 3 buildings over a 3 storey podium. It occupies an entire city block and sits in an extremely prominent location opposite Piccadilly Gardens. Due to being poorly maintained, Piccadilly Plaza became run down over the years, and much of City Tower was left vacant. The long leases held by some tenants meant a total demolition and redevelopment of the site was unfeasible, and so refurbishment plans were drawn up. In 1999 plans were released showing the proposed recladding of City Tower, it was to be clad in green solar panels and have an impressive night lighting scheme. The solar panel plan was never realised and the buildings continued to decay, until prolific property company Bruntwood purchased Piccadilly Plaza for £65 million in 2004. Bruntwood renamed the tower 'City Tower' and in mid 2005 they began their own refurbishment plan, which saw the window panels replaced along with protective white paint applied to the brown side facades. The tower is one of Manchester's main broadcast transmission sites, hosting the antennas of local radio stations XFM, Rock Radio, Capital on FM and digital radio multiplexes Digital One, BBC, MXR North West and CE Manchester. Although City Tower is only the third highest building in the city, the 28th floor is the highest commercial office space in Manchester. On the left is the former Ramada Hotel which has been recently refurbished and is now the Mercure Hotel.

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