Car park next in line for wrecking ball at Bruntwood SciTech’s Sister
The Charles Street multi-storey car park is to be knocked down as part of the developer’s efforts to ready the former UMIST campus for its transformation into a 4m sq ft innovation district.
Bruntwood SciTech has asked Manchester City Council for permission to demolish the car park, which has been closed since last year, to pave the way for residential buildings.
According to a planning statement by consultant Deloitte, the car park “is no longer fit for purpose and therefore has reached the end of its economic life”. The ground floor commercial units, which previously housed a café, bar, and shop, have all closed.
The site is located on plot H of the Sister masterplan. Once the car park is demolished, a 1.2-acre site will be left for future development into “bespoke forms of residential accommodation and PBSA”, according to the strategic regeneration framework for the area.
A spokesperson for Sister said: “We can confirm that a planning application has been submitted to Manchester City Council seeking permission to demolish the Charles Street car park and associated vacant commercial units. The demolition works will allow us to prepare the site for future development as part of the transformation of Sister into a world-class destination for research, collaboration and enterprise in the heart of Manchester. This application does not include any proposals for new buildings at this stage.
“While a series of technical assessments have already been carried out to consider potential impacts of the demolition on local residents and businesses – including noise, air quality and traffic – if the application is approved, a more detailed Demolition Management Plan will be implemented and distributed locally to ensure these works are carefully managed and any disruption is minimised.”
The car park is not the only building within the £1.7bn masterplan area that is earmarked for destruction.
As part of the first phase of Sister, which will see 500,000 sq ft of workspace delivered across two buildings, several parts of the former UMIST campus will be knocked down.
These include the Barnes Wallis and Wright Robinson Building, Manchester Meeting Place, Morton Laboratory and Moffat Building, and the Butterfly Stairs to pave the way for 585,000 sq ft of new office space.
In addition, plans to partially encapsulate the grade two-listed Hollaway Wall inside one of the office buildings have divided opinion.
Outside of the masterplan area but part of the former UMIST campus, the Faraday Tower, a former teaching building that has been vacant since 2017, is also in line for demolition.
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More PBSA. What about people who work in this Sister place and want accomm? Not ev everyone is a student?
By Yawn
Hi Yawn. As the story states, PBSA is one option being considered. Best wishes, Dan
By Dan Whelan
Good. Multistorey car parks should be outside the ring road near public transport hubs. Not in a city centre.
By Flixton resident
This Development Looks amazing I hope there is A 55-80 storey tower there because it looks like theres gonna be a Tall building there
By Giant skyscraper Fan
Good news. It’s an absolute eyesore that building
By Steve
Multi story car parks should be underground like most of mainland Europe instead of taking vital space.
By Anonymous
Re. Fixton resident.
No, there needs to be car parking right in the city centre, admittedly something MCC also seems to hate.
For one thing, many people with a disability still need to get as close as possible to where they need to go, without notional interchanges, and funny enough the same people who want multi-stories banished also want remaining roads closed off and/or pedestrianised so even less chance of an on-street space.
It’s called Eco-Ableism, which even some of the big environmental campaigns are now starting to recognise.
By Bluebadge the Pirate
This “Car park” eye sore also including the now closed and homeless Retro Bar. Because we must kill all manchester culture and nightlife stone dead in the name of PBSA / profit
By Eddy
SAVE the Butterfly Stairs!
By M102
Following the decision earlier in the year to demolish the Church Street multi-storey carpark, it will be great to see this eyesore also get cleared. Maybe we could do the hat-trick and demolish the Arndale centre’s multi-story carpark.
By Anonymous
The ambition to create a residential offer beyond PBSA – build to own or build to rent – is a worthy one but a flawed one unless there are legally binding provisions to prevent any student from occupying such properties.
As such provisions being put in place would be challenging on so many different levels PBSA is the most logical residential outcome unless a Registered Social Landlord steps up to the plate. However I suspect Bruntwood require a very significant land value for the Charles Street site killing off such an option. So PBSA it will be.
By Anonymous