Capital & Centric wins planning at The Place

Developer Capital & Centric has been granted planning permission and listed building consent at The Place close to Manchester Piccadilly station. Originally built in 1865, the building was redeveloped by Manchester-based student accommodation specialist Opal Property Group as a residential scheme in 2008, before being repositioned as an aparthotel.

Following Opal’s collapse, The Place was acquired out of administration by Goldman Sachs and Greystar Real Estate Partners as part of a £300m portfolio of Opal assets in September 2013. It is understood that The Place was offered to the market for around £30m earlier this year.

Capital & Centric and Ares Management, having acquired the building, are to add 59 more apartments within the remodelled building, to make a total of 166. The conference space at the facility will be converted into a residents’ lounge, while new office space will be added, along with a restaurant at ground floor as the building is again repositioned. The architect for the project is Archer Humphryes, a specialist in restoration and redevelopment.

The building was originally built by Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway for use as a bonded warehouse. Its proposed redevelopment further strengthens Capital & Centric’s position as the key residential developer in the Piccadilly area.

Capital & Centric was recently granted consent for the £200m Kampus project on Aytoun Street, a joint venture with Henry Boot Developments. In 2015, the developer acquired the 200,000 sq ft Crusader Mill, for which a planning application for 200 apartments has been submitted. Ares Management also has other interests in the area – in April 2016, it acquired office buildings Three and Four Piccadilly Place from Carlyle.

All parties declined to comment.