Funding deal for Rochdale Riverside phase two

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority is to back the mixed-use development in the town centre with a £4m funding package, allowing work to begin next summer.

The residential element of the project is set to secure the funding next week, which will help the delivery of 228 apartments in an initial phase. These are to be for affordable rent, and will be built on a site used for storage for the opening phase, which is currently under construction.

Later phases are set to include a hotel and offices; an operator for the hotel is understood to have been lined up by the council already. This will be funded separately from the apartments.

Under the move set to be signed off by the GMCA next week, the Combined Authority will provide £4m towards the residential element, and Rochdale Council will be required to match this with a further £4m.

Phase two will sit alongside the 200,000 sq ft retail and leisure-led phase one, which is currently being built by Willmott Dixon. Tenants to sign up include Puttstars, Next, M&S, River Island, JD Sports, and H&M. Genr8 is acting as developer and is delivering the project alongside partner Kajima and the council.

GMCA papers said the second phase would commence in June 2020, with plans to use “the save developer partner and construction contractor” in a move that would “achieve efficiencies in overall build costs”.

However, Place North West understands a formal contract is yet to be agreed with Willmott Dixon, although the contractor has already agreed to carry out remediation works for the second phase.

The funding is set to be agreed on 29 November.

Steve Rumbelow, chief executive of Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Rochdale Riverside is a key part of our £400m investment programme for Rochdale town centre.

“We’ve already transformed much of the area, with new transport infrastructure, a new customer service centre, office and library and more. But our ambition is bigger than that and there’s still much more to deliver. What we’ve done so far is a statement of intent for what we want to see in our borough and the support of the GMCA is testament to that.”