Final two battle it out for £750m Wythenshawe Civic
Muse and Igloo Regeneration with Altered/Space are the two parties competing to secure one of the country’s biggest regeneration schemes.
The developers are due to be informed in the coming days about who has prevailed in the battle to win the opportunity to redevelop Wythenshawe town centre, delivering 1,600 homes and much more.
Dubbed Wythenshawe Civic, the £750m regeneration project will be delivered over the next 15 years and provide 1,600 homes.
Readers will be familiar with Muse, which is a prolific player in the regeneration game and regularly in the hunt for this kind of project.
Muse is delivering large-scale, publicly procured redevelopment projects in Salford, Blackpool, St Helens, and Stockport, among others – both alone and as part of English Cities Fund.
Place North West readers may be less au fait with Igloo. While boasting an office in Manchester, the developer is yet to make its mark on the city.
However, Igloo is working on several large regeneration projects across the country. Its two biggest schemes are in the North East – the £450m Riverside in Sunderland, and the commercial-led Stephenson Quarter in Newcastle.
Igloo is working with Altered/Space, the developer behind the regeneration of Sale Square Shopping Centre, and plans to deliver housing on part of the Cockhedge Shopping Centre site.
All parties declined to comment.
Manchester City Council acquired the 1970s Wythenshawe Civic Centre from St Modwen in 2022 to unlock the long-waited regeneration of the town centre.
As well as 1,600 homes, the city council’s vision for the site features:
- A mobility hub
- The conversion of around 130,000 sq ft of vacant shops into employment space
- 20,000 sq ft food and beverage destination
- Expanded retail offer, including a Lidl supermarket
- New public square as part of public realm refresh
- 2.5-acre public park
- Cultural hub delivered in collaboration with HOME.
The city council has also identified several opportunity sites within the red line boundary, which include the former Shell HQ, the old bus station, Brotherton House, Barclays Data Centre, Forum car park, Alpha and Centron House, and the former Gala Bingo site.
Is 2.5 acres a park or a garden?
Interesting re the employment space, no actual plan then on how this will be accomplished.
Also , how many more supermarkets do we need.
By Peter Chapman
Forum car park!?? What this going to do there? We NEED THIS CAR PARK!!
By Τρει
I think what Wythenshawe Town Centre really needs is a mall with lots of shops including primark, also amusements such as a cinema and a bowling hall and arcade and a food court bring wythenshawe to life bringing in lots of customers from all over as it is close to Manchester airport put all that money to good use
By Jade
What part of this long promised scheme is genuinely aimed at the historic residents of the local area? My suspicions are that like most other such projects there is little or no ambition to provide improvements to the lives of the often ignored local population. I fear that the strongest driver involved is purely commercial gain.
By Anonymous
70 year been in wythenshaw i love it please do a good job for the wildlife do not lost the wooods all around
By John downs
Sounds excellent but we need better shops instead of gambling shops and charity shops. Decent shops bring in money. Then you have anti social ferrel teenagers ransacking civic and the trams. Finally you have beggars who beg but have homes but decide to beg for drugs. Then the thieves who plague civic.
The security you have is good but don’t have enough guards. Shopping carts being dropped from the multi story carpark. The multi story is rotting from the top to bottom. I work in Asda and I see the ferrel kids, beggars and the thieves. I fear with all the investment you put into civic raising it’s prestige and stature will be ruined.
Other than that I look forward to seeing new civic and all it’s future opportunities.
By Ian Whittaker
Both projects will equally make Wythenshawe worse, expensive housing and smaller shopping center, only to line the pockets of the rich and not benefit the community. It’s a shame developers and the council alike don’t care about the people of Wythenshawe and what we want. We need a cinema, bars,food restaurants not more homes to an already over crowded run down town with no infrastructure and no services provided from the council to keep our parks/pavements clean and tidy
By Dave
There is a real need for council houses.Not what are usualy known as affordable housing as most local people are probably on minimum wage and can’t afford to buy.
By K Jones
Need to ensure sufficient car parking facilities and what employment opportunities will be available? Plenty of commercial space in the area unoccupied now!
By Anonymous
1600 new homes=1600 weekly rents some will be doing well out of it but it won’t be the people of Wythenshawe.
By Benchill resident
Are shops not already classed as ’employment’? Or is it all about the revenue?
By Lurch
More empty promises the last time civic was😀revamped we lost a good market some good shops a cinema within the forum centre and various so I won’t hold my breath
By Anne
This is really good news I am looking forward to it getting started.
By Wythenshawe Resident
Good luck you’re going to need it
By Anonymous
This is purely a council tax raising revenue exercise, 30% affordable housing in an area of high deprivation proves what Manchester council priorities are and its got nothing to do with improving the lives of those that currently live there.
Manchester council along with their partners in crime Wythenshawe housing have spent decades destroying the ‘garden city’ dream, they’ve closed and sold off countless local community high schools, the land (and vital green space) sold off to private developers.
Two landmark ‘green’ roundabouts demolished, a town square lost through the (wrongly) siting of a transport interchange, it should have been built on Rowlandsway.
Willow Park (Wythenshawe housing) ripping out miles of living hedge and tarmacking over hundreds of front gardens and more recently junk food drive throughs in the centre that induce thousands of vehicles from outside the area and all the antisocial behaviour, danger, noise, pollution that goes with it.
The area has suffered years of mismanagement and attacks from the authorities, this scheme is just another almighty abuse of power
By Urban_Manc
I’ll point out, ‘civic centre’ was built in the early 60s , its not a 70s town centre, it was opened in 1963
By Urban_Manc