CFP #23 – Nick Johnson

Creative Forces with Guy Kilty

Nick Johnson is a pioneer of property development and urban regeneration. After starting out as a surveyor he went on to become a director of the hugely successful city centre regeneration specialists Urban Splash, chair of Marketing Manchester and a teacher at Yale. In 2011, though, he went into “self-imposed exile”, leaving those and several other advisory roles behind to start again. That decision led him to take on the redevelopment of the market hall in Altrincham, Cheshire, with great success. Soon afterwards he and his partner Jen took their formula of semi-industrial style and carefully curated independent traders a step further by creating Mackie Mayor from a Grade II listed market building on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter. In this fascinating interview, hear how Nick was heavily involved and influenced by the Factory records scene in the 1990s, why he likes to keep things just on the edge of falling apart, and why he never takes a meeting that involves more than three people.