1,500 Manchester homes tipped for green light next week

A 23-storey tower in Cheetham Hill, the redevelopment of Victoria Point student complex, a clutch of homes in Whalley Range, and 359 apartments on Sparkle Street are all expected to be rubber-stamped.

Sparkle Street

SimpsonHaugh is the architect behind the proposals. Credit: via Counter Context

Developer: JRL Group and Central and Urban

Architect: SimpsonHaugh Architects

Planner: Deloitte

Reference number: 139986/FO/2024

Working with Central and Urban, JRL Group has submitted proposals for a 359-home scheme close to Piccadilly station.

Rising to 28 storeys, scheme would cost £75m to build, according to a viability appraisal by CBRE.

Midgard, JRL’s construction arm, is lined up to deliver the Manchester project. Re-form is the landscape architect advising on the Sparkle Street scheme.

The development would feature one, two-, and three-bedroom build-to-rent apartments and townhouses.

The scheme aims to build on development momentum in the surrounding area.

Property Alliance Group’s Oxygen tower is north of JRL and Central and Urban’s site, while M1 Piccadilly’s proposed gold tower would be constructed on an adjoining plot. Mayfield, whose first phase alone will cost £400m to build, is also close by.

The developers behind the latest Store Street proposals are relatively new to Manchester. JRL Group has been active in the city since 2018 and Midgard is currently delivering CDL Hospitality Trusts’ Castings scheme, which is a short distance away.

Central and Urban has so far stuck to hotels in Manchester. It has delivered a StayCity aparthotel in Ancoats and a Maldron hotel off Oxford Road.

Cheetham Hill Road

The site has been vacant for several years. Credit: via Counter Context

Developer: Zephyr X

Architect: Hawkins\Brown

Planner: Iceni Projects

Reference number: 138696/FO/2023

Zephyr X wants to deliver a £70m project, 23-storey build-to-rent tower that would provide 237 apartments on a site fronting Cheetham Hill Road and bound by Carnarvon Street and Gibson Place.

The plot has been vacant for several years and was previously the forecourt for a car showroom.

Designed by Hawkins\Brown, the project would provide 155 two-bedroom apartments and 82 with one-bedroom, as well as ground floor commercial space.

KS4 Consulting is the project manager.

Zephyr X specialises in the development of residential schemes and is currently delivering care homes in Wigan and Blackburn as well as a 375-apartment BTR project in Milton Keynes.

Cheetham Hill is becoming an increasingly attractive prospect for developers due to the amount of regeneration going on around it. Last month, Benjamin Property Company put forward plans for a 25-storey scheme off Park Place, a short distance from Zephyr’s site.

Manchester College’s new city campus and Salboy’s 556-home Waterhouse Gardens are also nearby, while FEC and Manchester City Council’s 15,000-home Victoria North and the proposed regeneration of Strangeways will only hasten the speed of development in places like Cheetham Hill.

Victoria Point

Credit: via planning documents

Developer: Empiric Student Property

Architect: 5plus Architects and Bell Phillips

Planner: Turley

Reference number: 139987/FO/2024

Deferred for a site visit last month, Empiric Student Property’s plans to overhaul Victoria Point, a student accommodation development off Hathersage Road, have been recommended for approval. The application had been submitted for consideration in May.

The developer’s ambition is to reconfigure – and in some cases demolish – the existing six blocks on site. Of the six buildings, four would receive extensions. The two that are set for razing would be replaced with one four-storey block and another that is 12 storeys.

Through the extensions and the new-build elements, the number of beds at Victoria Point would increase by 310, reaching 876 bed spaces across 694 units. These would range from studios to four-bed cluster apartments.

Of those 694 units, 23 of the studios would be wheelchair accessible.

The proposals, drawn up by architects Bell Phillips and 5plus, also include various amenities, communal terraces, and groundfloor commercial space. There is also a provision for 28 car parking spaces and 226 cycle storage spaces.

If city councillors go along with planning officer recommendations, approval would be contingent on a Section 106 agreement that ensures that 20% of the additional 310 bedspaces are designated as affordable and offered for 80% of the market rent.

In addition to Bell Phillips and 5plus, the project team includes planner Turley, project manager Quartz, and landscape architect LUC. Hoare Lea, Greengage, Vectos, Cushman & Wakefield, Salford Archaeology, Atelier Ten, Sandy Brown, Eb7, Semper, and Heyne Tillet Steel also contributed to the application.

Withington Road

Ollier Smurthwaite is leading on the scheme’s design. Credit: via planning documents

Developer: Views

Architect: Ollier Smurthwaite Architects

Planner: Ashton Hale

Reference number: 136256/FO/2023

The site of 136 Withington Road is to be redeveloped by Views into 35 homes under plans from View lodged 18 months ago.

The scheme would see the existing building on the site partially demolished to pave the way for 31 one- and two-bedroom apartments and four townhouses – two with two bedrooms and two with three.