Manchester’s latest arts space, Factory International, is looking to sell naming rights to the venue as costs for the project rise.
The venue is reportedly in talks with several brands about selling naming rights for the £210m facility, which will open next year.
It comes as the project, which is being primarily funded by the government and Arts Council England has asked Manchester City Council for another £25m.
The facility, at the heart of the St John’s regeneration area on the former Granada Studios site, will be the permanent home of Manchester International Festival (MIF) with events all year round, contributing an estimated £1.1bn to the economy over a decade. It recently announced that Trainspotting and London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony creator Danny Boyle would be overseeing its opening event next year.
Councillors are expected to approve the renewed request for funding, which will require £15.2m of borrowing, at an executive meeting next week.
But local authority leaders say they hope a ‘significant proportion’ of the capital costs will be recovered by selling the naming rights to the venue, the Local Democracy Reporting service noted.
MIF executive director Randel Bryan told the council that the naming deal is expected to raise at least £25m, which goes above the total fundraising target previously set for the arts centre.
He said: “We’ve already had really advanced conversations with a number of leading brands that have been in excess of the £24m mark.
“Those deals, for a number of reasons, are still being developed and are still in a pipeline, but it does show that there are sponsors and partners out there that are prepared to exceed our ambitions with naming rights.”
Factory chiefs hope to finish the naming rights deal before the venue opens. Around 70 per cent of the proceeds from the deal will go to the council directly with the remaining 30 pc support MIF and the future of the Factory.
Councillors on the scrutiny committee supported the request for further funding for Factory, though they did ask whether this will be the last time more money is needed. Manchester Council has already invested more than £50m in the Factory project.
