Developer sought for Northern Gateway homes
Manchester Place has launched the search for a long-term private sector investment partner to deliver the residential-led regeneration of a 350-acre site to the North of the city.
Manchester Place is a collaboration between Manchester City Council and the Homes & Communities Agency created to look at the home building needed to support the city’s economic and population growth ambitions.
Referred to by the council as the Northern Gateway, the area extends in a north eastern arc from Victoria Station including the neighbourhoods of NOMA, the Lower Irk Valley, New Cross and Collyhurst, covering around 350-acres.
It is estimated that the neighbourhoods could support up to 7,000 new homes in the next 10 to 15-year period.
According to the council, the land is “substantially underutilised” following a history of de-industrialisation and disappearing economic uses.
The vision set out in the masterplans for the neighbourhoods is to create “a series of distinctive and interconnected communities that are supported by high-quality facilities and green spaces”.
The council said that the scale of the development area would require a long-term private investor that can innovate and deliver different residential products, with sufficient financial capacity to invest heavily up-front and take a longer term view on financial return.
The first phase of the Northern Gateway project will focus on the site identified around Angel Meadow in NOMA, working with the Co-operative Group in the coming months to find a developer and investment partner.
The Lower Irk Valley, New Cross and Collyhurst will follow in a later phase of delivery. These areas are already receiving early stage remodelling and the ambition is to tailor planned development for these areas with little delay.
Cllr Bernard Priest, deputy leader of Manchester City Council, said: “The Northern Gateway provides the means to expand the city centre northwards, connecting the neighbourhoods of New Cross, Lower Irk Valley and Collyhurst to the core of the city to deliver a diverse range of new homes that will meet the needs of a growing population.”
“Manchester is growing quickly and we need to plan now to make sure we have the homes and neighbourhoods that Manchester’s growing workforce can live and if they choose to, raise a family.”
