Developers on alert for pair of prime Manchester opportunities
The city council is preparing to launch two development sites for sale: the Church Street multi-storey car park in the Northern Quarter and 2.8 acres in Hulme previously earmarked for UKFast offices.
Both sites, which CBRE has been instructed to market, are earmarked for homes.
Church Street Car Park
The four-level car park is located at the gateway to Manchester’s Northern Quarter between Church Street and Tib Street. There are few development sites in the city boasting such a central location so the race to secure the plot will likely be hotly contested.
While large scale development is rarer in the Northern Quarter than other parts of the city due to the listed status of many of the buildings and the presence of the Stevenson Square Conservation Area, several schemes close to the car park have secured planning approval in recent years.
Opposite the car park on the other side of Tib Street, Salboy’s 187-apartment Transmission House completed in 2020. Salboy has also delivered the 43,000 sq ft Glassworks facing Shudehill interchange, a development that was not universally popular.
Not all schemes approved in recent times have been delivered. The controversial Warp & Weft from Real Estate Investment Partnership has consent but no work has taken place, while a proposed 37-flat development off Red Lion Street next to the car park stalled shortly after groundwork began.
Birley Fields, Hulme
The other site the city council is selling is a 2.75-acre plot on the corner of Greenheys Lane West and Old Birley Street in Hulme.
The plot was previously earmarked for an extension of UKFast’s headquarters. Lawrence Jones, the technology firm’s disgraced founder, agreed a deal with Manchester City Council to acquire the plot of land opposite the firm’s Birley Fields campus in 2019.
The deal was agreed just before Jones stepped down from the company amid the sexual misconduct allegations that eventually saw him jailed for 15 years.
Agents to market the sites are expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.
The disposals form part of Manchester City Council’s ongoing estate strategy, which generated £23.3m in capital receipts in the 2023/24 financial year. The aim of the strategy is to facilitate development in line with the authority’s overarching objectives around homes, jobs, and social value.
Manchester City Council has a £100m disposals pipeline over the next three years, according to a report to its economy and regeneration committee.
I’ve been thinking for years that this car park should be demolished. I’m thinking a nice landmark building to define Manchester with a beautiful square next to it.
By Quail
The car park site has to be one of the most exciting opportunities to completely transform an area within the city centre. Fantastic layout, some really beautiful heritage buildings providing frontages to the adjacent streets and ample space to provide a pocket park or public space.
By Anonymous
It will never happen – But this would be a perfect location to demolish the car park and transform the entire plot into an attractive green space and public realm
By Anon
Here’s hoping that about a third of the carpark site can become public realm. It’s the sort of location that doesn’t come around often so would be a shame to miss the opportunity
By Anonymous
Not before time. The Tib Street car park is one of the ugliest eye-sores in Manchester.
By Anonymous
About time! It needs to a go, a landmark scraper with a nice square/park with fountain would be perfect.
By Anonymous
I would take quite literally any development if it means I get to see a multi-storey car park demolished
By Benjamin
The rear of the site would make a fantastic town square / garden for the Northern Quarter a La Parsonage Gardens. The block fronting Church Street would make a decent apartment block I doubt the council would sacrifice a few million quid to create a nice place to live. The record on previous opportunities and public spaces has been pretty dismal. The value of a Garden Square is hard to quantify the it lasts for ever long after the cost is forgotten!
By New Garden Please
Appreciate there is going to be a lot of pressure to deliver density on the Church Street Car Park site (given it’s central location) – but it would be amazing if a significant proportion of the site (ideally on the Thomas Street side) could be designated as public/green space the Northern Quarter community has needed for a long time. It would be a huge boost the liveability and visitor offer of the Northern Quarter and could be a greener and calmer counterbalance to the vibrancy and bustle of Stevenson Square!
By Anonymous
Only in Manchester would it take this long for this to happen
By Anonymous
Smithfield Residents park here though
By Anonymous
FINALLY! Get rid of that VILE Car Park
By Anonymous
@ August 29, 2024 at 1:03 pm
By Anonymous
If so, they’ll have to park somewhere else – or travel by different means.
By Anonymous
Great, hope the proposals genuinely take the surroundings and site history into account. Would be great to see the site broken up smaller plots to create finer grain reflecting the surrounding and restoring the historic street that ran Turner St through to Tibb St with street facing frontages. 7/8 stories max
By Anonymous
Finally that monstrosity on Church Street is going. Great opportunity to create a landmark development
By Steve
I’m so excited for what extruded checker glass box SHP come up with for the car park. The mind boggles at the square/circular/rectangular possibilities!
By Anonymous
@ August 29, 2024 at 1:33 pm
By Anonymous
I agree. Density density. I’d add a garden square too in the mix.
By Rye
The entire thing should be a beer garden for the Millstone
By Anonymous
Where is the kind millionaire benefactor, who could easily buy a city centre site like this and turn it into a nice park for all future generations?
By John
The car park is horrible and doing something with it is long overdue. However, it is used to quite a large extent by local residents, there is little if any on-street parking (not a bad thing in itself) and other options are now being built on. People don’t stop having cars – in some cases needing them – just because they live in the city centre and some other people disapprove of them, so they do need somewhere to be kept, ideally with charging infrastructure built in. Call it a Mobility Hub…
It would be good to see some open space included, but realistically, anything in this spot would need 24-hour security.
By Anonymous
It is disappointing to read that the Council want to put homes on the Church Street Car Park site – this would make a great little pocket park for those Ancoats residents that are screaming out for more green space. Or maybe that location would be too far for those residents to walk………………………….
By Anonymous
When is the council going to start to build social housing for us Hulme residents instead of just selling the land for a big buck
By Anonymous
John, who would pay to police it? Would the millionaire fund security?
By Anonymous
Skatepark, green space & space for market traders please
By Raevon
Simpson-Haugh architects rubbing their hands together at the prospect of being able to design yet another checkerboard monstrosity
By Anonymous
The “turn Manchester into a green oasis” crowd are probably the same to whinge about their council tax being too high.
By Bankrupt
Getting rid of the carpark is good news, let’s hope the Arndale carpark will be next.
By Anonymous
And to keep it as a car park….. ??? Another nail in the coffin for car owners to come into the city centre 🤬🤬
By Howard G
Appreciate the issue of parking Vs sustainability has caused a lot of delays with numerous planned developments. As a local business owner this has been a blot on the landscape for far too long so let’s hope this is developed into something more inkeeping and useful for a modern city.
By Richard Gahagan