What is being built on the site of the old EventCity near the Trafford Center is quietly important. The meeting room is no longer there. Instead, work is being done on what will become Therme Manchester, an indoor water park and wellness resort that will cost £500 million and open in late 2028. Its Austrian owners think it will attract close to 1.7 million visitors a year.
There should be some healthy doubt about the numbers because they are so big. But the project’s goals seem to be based in reality: the idea that families in the North West have had to travel a long way and pay a lot to enjoy the same kind of all-weather recreation that European cities have had for decades. Manchester might be the right city for this because it always rains there and people there are very practical.
Therme Group already runs resorts in Germany and Bucharest that get about 3.5 million visitors a year between them, so this isn’t just a hopeful idea that hasn’t been tested. The Manchester site, which will be 28 acres, or about the size of 28 football fields, will be the first place in the UK to use this model. The appeal is pretty clear: an indoor destination open all year with wave pools, more than 25 water slides, thermal baths, saunas, botanical gardens, and an indoor beach that stays at 33 degrees Celsius no matter what the weather is like outside in November.
It’s not as important as it might seem at first where it is. The resort wasn’t just put next to the Trafford Center, with a Metrolink stop right outside the front door. Builders say they chose Greater Manchester because it has good transportation links. The landowner, Peel Group, offered the site with those links already built in. It is possible for families coming from Bolton, Wigan, Oldham, or other places in the North West to get there without a car. This detail fits well with the resort’s stated goal to be open to everyone instead of exclusive.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that pricing has not been confirmed. The business has talked about “affordable luxury” and giving customers choices that fit their budgets, which sounds careful and on purpose. It’s still not clear if that means it’s really affordable for a typical family of four or if it moves toward the more expensive end of the market. Similar attractions in Europe have done a good job of finding the right balance, but things are different in the UK.
It’s also important to note that the project’s cost has gone up a lot, from the £250 million estimate that was made public in 2019 to the current £500 million figure. The dates for building have changed more than once. All of that is normal for a project this big, but it does serve as a reminder that 2028 is still a long way off and a lot can happen in that time. What hasn’t changed is the main idea: families in Northern England deserve something they don’t have now, and Manchester is big enough, connected enough, and hungry enough to support it.
Some people think this really fills a need. Not just in the leisure market, but also in what the area has to offer its own people. Therme Manchester could become the kind of place that families plan their whole year around, not just once, if it lives up to even a small part of what was promised. That is the kind of anchor that people in a city tend to remember.
