Capital & Centric

They spotted the 200,000 sq ft site several months ago - which includes buildings on Fair Street, Chapeltown Street, Congou Street and Baird Street - while looking to the possibility of putting in a bid on the London Road Fire Station site. A Rogue spokesman initially expressed the group's "shock" at the sale, but Mr Heatley says Capital & Centric... have now entered into sincere dialogue with the artists to help them relocate to a new, permanent home. Mr Heatley exclusively told the M.E.N.: "Rogue has been there for 10 years or more, and has become a very important and viable community. They were nervous the developers would just decimate all that. "But they've had a look at the work the company do, and work the company has done with other artists, and as a result I think they're a bit more relaxed. "We're looking as a team at where the company can help Rogue move to so the company can make sure they have a sustainable home. This is an opportunity for the company and for Rogue to protect that important legacy. "Before it was a studios, the mill was a garment works, and before that it was where they made machinery for the cotton industry. It's just an evolution, and we're a part of that evolution, and now the custodian of the building for the next few years." Mr Heatley said that preserving the studios would protect the "eco-system" of the city, because art and culture are what attracts people to want to live and work in Manchester. Rogue Studios currently occupies about 30,000 square feet of the mill across three floors. Large parts of complex, which was built in 1830 by Joseph Chessborough Dyer (co-founder of the Manchester Guardian and the Bank of Manchester), are currently out of use or derelict. It has been in private hands since the 1970s. Mr Heatley added: "The building is falling down, and for me as a Manchester lad that's heartbreaking to see. "The company want to preserve as much of the character of these buildings and this city as possible, so it's a privilege to be able to do that with the Crusader ...Read More