nmp are proud to announce that their involvement with MediaCity UK has secured £8m for a Media Enterprise Centre that will house digital and games development centres.

MediaCity UK has secured the go-ahead for an £8m Media Enterprise Centre that will house digital and games development centres.

Salford City Council has signed a lease with Peel Media for the 53,500 sq ft centre, which will be spread across six floors and offer business space, specialist training facilities, advice from Business Link and Northwest Vision and Media and access to the NorthernNet digital media network.

It will also house the recently-announced games industry centre for excellence, an international digital research hub, and a development hothouse for digital content and prototypes. The centre will also be a place where community groups can learn new skills and create media content.

The European Regional Development Fund has invested £4.2m, with a further £3.8m coming from the North West Development Agency, which is putting more than £30m into the wider MediaCity UK project. The council will provide top-up funding.

The council will look for an operator for the centre in early 2010 and expects it to open in summer 2011.

NWDA chief executive Steven Broomhead said: “This additional investment in the MEC will help to create the supportive environment for business innovation and growth that is an equally critical part of the MediaCityUK infrastructure. We know that MediaCityUK will be a site of global importance in the digital and creative sector and the initiatives based within the MEC will make it a bustling centre of the latest digital and creative thinking.