UKREiiF | Matthew Pennycook: ‘That’s the bargain you make’

After an angry reaction to the developer’s plans to switch from brick slip cladding to an aluminium system, additional design changes have been made to the Manchester student scheme, giving the 35-storey tower a “more appropriate” bronze finish.

The 13-storey Faraday Tower is to be pulled down having been vacant since 2007.

Manchester City Council, development partner Muse, and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group have struck a deal that will see the initial three residential plots within the £500m regeneration masterplan brought forward by the registered provider.

Team Barrow, chaired by Simon Case, the former head of the civil service, launched its 10-year regeneration strategy at UKREiiF off the back of a £220m funding package from central government, which centres around a bid to drastically increase the UK’s defence industry’s output.

Contractor Bowmer + Kirkland will start work this summer on the first commercial building within Manchester’s Mayfield masterplan, a 233,0000 sq ft office block.

Wire Regeneration, the joint venture between Warrington Council and developer Langtree, has renamed the 80,000 sq ft office hub as The Causeway, with completion of works set for autumn.

Barnfield’s joint venture with the local authority is delivering the R&D-led facility as part of the £100m Darwen Town Deal.

The government’s 1.5m homes target is “a stretch” but presents an exciting opportunity for the country’s development industry, according to Justin Hartley, regional director at Yardi.

Subject to planning consent, the two-acre plot will accommodate UrbanX, a 53,000 sq ft development across two units, following a deal with Landmark Group.

Around 300 property professionals headed straight from the Royal Armouries to Revolution de Cuba to unwind at the end of the first day of UKREiiF 2025 in Leeds.

Over the last 10 years, Duncan Wilson has fought to strike a balance between convincing the development industry it is not a blocker and trying to preserve the country’s historic estate. He sat down with Place North West at UKREiiF to reflect on his decade in post.

The developer’s sister business Domis has reached the highest point of construction on the last of five buildings that make up the 556-apartment Manchester project.

The firm has bought Lanmara Developments and with it a three-acre chunk of the city’s Canal Quarter that could accommodate a 300,000 sq ft commercial scheme.

Fit-out contractor Flexible Business Interiors has begun work on the redevelopment of office space at Newton-le-Willows’ The Parks for Ascent Autism Specialist College.

A partnership between Peel Ports Group and Medcem will create a deep-water terminal at the former P&O site at Gladstone Dock, with work starting this month.

Joint applicants Bod Hotels and CCA Land want to turn the derelict 2.2-acre Plas Ifan Hotel off Northop Road into a residential care scheme with a dementia-focused floor.

Jonathan Wilson, owner of Citu, and Crystal Jenkins, associate director at Overford sat down with Place North’s Sally Gibson to discuss what’s on the agenda for developments in the region over the next few years, and how the introduction of the BSA and changes to planning laws will affect construction disputes. 

Urban Splash Residential Fund and investment adviser SURE Capital Partners have secured a £50m debt facility with the bank.

LDA Design will lead a professional team tasked with mapping out regeneration in the St George’s Gateway area over the next decade.