Fresh images of major Manchester life science/student cluster
Property Alliance Group, Kadans Science Partner, McLaren Property, and Moda are pushing ahead with plans to develop 700,000 sq ft of lab and office space and 1,840 homes for students on Upper Brook Street.
The quartet, which unveiled its Manchester plans in March, has launched a second round of public consultation on the proposals, releasing the first CGIs of the development.
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Located within the Oxford Road Corridor close to the University of Manchester and MMU, the site is effectively split into two parts: one half is owned by Alliance and the other by McLaren.
McLaren plans to deliver 740 student beds within a 23-storey building on its part of the site. The developer is also working with Kadans to bring forward 215,000 sq ft of life sciences workspace, as first revealed by Place North West in February.
Kadans operates more than 40 buildings across 25 campuses in the Netherlands and the UK. The Manchester site would be company’s first in the North of England.
Alliance, which is also behind the regeneration of the Renaissance site off Deansgate, plans to develop 470,000 sq ft of life sciences accommodation on its portion of the Upper Brook Street masterplan.
Meanwhile, Moda Living will deliver around 1,100 student accommodation units in partnership with Alliance.
The student beds are the first to come forward from Moda Living’s 4,000-bed student accommodation pipeline, announced earlier this year.
- Credit: via Property Alliance Group
- Credit: via Property Alliance Group
Moda’s student scheme, located on the northernmost part of the site, will provide the masterplan’s tallest building, rising to 42 storeys.
As well as PBSA and life sciences space, the project would feature ground floor facilities for the local community, including a convenience store, medical centre, community centre, and a café or shop.
Dr David Lambrick, deputy pro-vice chancellor in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Manchester Metropolitan University, said the creation of life science workspace in Manchester would help the city on its way to becoming “one of the top places in the world for innovation”.
“The development of purpose-built, high-quality laboratory research and development space on the Oxford Road Corridor is important to achieve the full potential of Manchester’s scientific economy,” he said.
“Future occupiers will provide innovation employment opportunities to retain students and the local population, and work to address health inequalities, again to the benefit of the local community.”
Architects Hawkins\Brown, Sheppard Robson, and SimpsonHaugh are attached to the scheme.
Hawkins\Brown designed Alliance and Moda’s life sciences space, while SimpsonHaugh drew up the 1,100-student bed element. Sheppard Robson designed both the PBSA and life sciences space for McLaren and Kadans.
Landscape studio Reform is advising on the development’s public realm, which amounts to three acres and includes two public squares.
Avison Young is advising the developers on planning matters.
A spokesperson for the consortium of developers said: “Since the first public consultation, the collective team has continued to work productively with the local community and key stakeholders at the heart of our masterplan vision, to understand their aspirations whilst connecting the neighbourhood to the city and in line with the council’s regeneration objectives for the Oxford Road Corridor.
“We are positive the updated details on the masterplan, including forward-thinking public realm space and amenities, will complement the advanced sci-tech workspace proposed, to create a best-in-class destination, creating growth and lasting benefits for residents, employees and the wider city.”
The latest round of consultation will run from today (24 May) until Monday 5 June. The developers will hold a second in-person engagement session on Friday 26 May, to be held at Brunswick Parish Church, Brunswick Street, Ardwick from 3pm until 8pm.
Click any image to launch gallery
- Credit: via consultation documents
- Credit: via planning documents
- Credit: via consultation documents
- Credit: via planning documents
- The relocation would unlock a site earmarked for labs. Credit: via planning documents
- Credit: via consultation documents
Looks great, hope reality lives up to the CGIs.
By Digbuth O'Hooligan
Not sure what I was expecting but quite disappointed with the designs tbh. Suppose its the function of the place that is the most important though. On that note ID Manchester seems to have gone very quiet, anyone any news on that?
By Bob
It will be a massive improvement but otherwise pretty bog standard.
By Anonymous
Absolutely horrendeus, entirely disproportionate to the local area of terraced houses. Zero real green space added whilst adding 2000 students to the area. The small park that exists for residents will be overwhelmed and cast in shadow from the oversized blocks.
Residents of the local area are against the plans, so naturally the Council will approve them no doubt.
By Eddie
Residents, some kiving just ten yards from the site are expected to endure a construction period between 7.5 and 10 years, for over ten hours a day, five days a week and half a day on Saturdays. Full enjoyment of the recently refurbished park will be impossible before 6pm and then compromised by dirt and dust. Some children simply won’t know what it is to play in the park since, by the time this is finished they’ll be young adults. Traffic of HGVs in and out of the site will be 50 – 60 vehicles a day in Phase 1- highly disruptive and extremely dangerous in a residential area especially for young children. This proposal is wholly inappropriate and, actually, inhumane and a total contravention of DeLoitte’s ORC Guidance document which states that, on scale and density, there should be ‘a general datum of between 6 and 10 storeys’. They also estimate that a proposal of this scale would take between ten and twenty years. It’s so obvious that the developers and landowners here are only interested in maximising their profits. They even threaten to exercise their right to ‘do nothing’ if their application is rejected. They really have Manchester’s interests at heart. Perhaps, it is this attitude, that led a representative of Manchester University at the recent consultation on ID Manchester at Brunswick Church, to immediately make it clear and distance the University from this proposal.
Remember, people – people live here. Respect the guidance.
By Anonymous