As The Hive prepares to open its doors on Lever Street in November, Rupert Dean, co-founder and CEO of x+why, will be the lead guest at Making Places, the next CUPRA Speakeasy, on Wednesday 4th November, 6:30–9pm at CUPRA City Garage Manchester. Bringing together three of the city’s most influential leaders across workspace, regeneration and leisure, it promises to be one of the most powerful line-ups in the CUPRA Speakeasy series to date.
Hosted by Manchester leading presenter Matt White, broadcaster, food and drink writer and the face of Manchester’s Finest, the evening brings Rupert together with Tim Heatley, co-founder of social impact developer Capital&Centric, and Jonathan Lingham, Chief Operations Officer at Therme Manchester. Between them they cover workspace, regeneration and large-scale leisure, and the conversation will explore how hospitality turns a development into a place people want to be, and how the city brings through its next generation of talent.
Rupert, who co-founded the B Corp x+why with Phil Nevin and Tanya Donald, has built fifteen workspaces and clubspaces designed around community. The Hive, created with Grosvenor in the heart of the Northern Quarter, brings that vision to life with hospitality at its core: Dahlia, from WANT Studios, pairs open-fire Latin cooking with a music-first bar and bespoke sound system, while PLOW, a new independent, family-owned neighbourhood grocer created by David of Kerb, completes the neighbourhood offer. The building’s community is already taking shape, with The Hive signing its first B Corp occupier recently.
Tim Heatley has become one of Manchester’s most influential voices in regeneration. With Adam Higgins, he has grown Capital&Centric into a national developer known for spending over £3m a week bringing heritage buildings back to life, from Crusader Mill, Ducie Street Warehouse and Kampus, to Liverpool’s landmark Littlewoods Project. He’s creating places from Newcastle in the north all the way down to Plymouth in the south.
Jonathan Lingham, Chief Operations Officer at Therme Manchester, is leading the team bringing one of the most ambitious leisure projects in the country to life. The £1bn wellbeing resort, now under construction on the 28-acre former EventCity site at TraffordCity, will be the UK’s first city-based wellbeing destination, combining thermal pools, saunas, botanical gardens, art and healthy food in a year-round tropical climate, with its own Metrolink stop. Due to open in 2028, it is set to create around 650 permanent jobs and is already investing in the region’s culture as headline sponsor of the Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards and through its Artists of the Future competition.
Together, the panel shows how workspace, neighbourhood and destination succeed when they put people and hospitality first.
Rupert Dean, co-founder and CEO of x+why, said: “The best workplaces don’t feel like offices, they feel like neighbourhoods. With The Hive, we wanted to create somewhere people choose to spend their day, where a meeting can turn into lunch at Dahlia and the day is fuelled with nutritious refreshments from PLOW. Manchester has always understood that the places that matter are the ones where people come together, and it’s a privilege to be sharing that conversation with Tim, Jonathan and Matt at CUPRA City Garage.”
Guests will enjoy drinks and canapés from Dahlia, a hosted 45-minute conversation, audience Q&A and networking, with Manchester’s Finest supporting the evening. CUPRA Speakeasy: Making Places takes place on Wednesday 4 November 2026, 6:30–9pm, at CUPRA City Garage Manchester, 4–6 St Ann Street, M2 7LG. Entry is free; registration required, with booking details to follow.
