Commentary
How SME developers are unlocking regional regeneration
We are currently delivering two projects that illustrate why secondary cities require a fundamentally different approach than established markets, writes Nick Mullins of Axis-RE.
The Joinery in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is a 261-unit build-to-rent scheme developed in partnership with Marco Living and City Developments. The site forms part of the Piccadilly East SRF and had operated as a surface car park for over a decade, but the fundamentals were straightforward: institutional capital understood Manchester BTR, operators knew the market, and planning had clear precedents.
Brewery Lane in Lancaster is a three-acre former brewery site that had been derelict for over 40 years. It sits within the city’s Canal Quarter, and while a masterplan existed for more than a decade, nothing had moved. Working alongside Marco Living again, ensuring this scheme is financially viable requires significant coordination across Lancaster City Council, Lancashire County Council, the NHS, cultural venues including the Dukes and Grand theatres and positioning alongside the Eden Project’s transformational impact on Morecambe.
The difference between the two isn’t just scale or location. It’s the level of coordination required before delivery becomes financially viable.
The Joinery, Northern Quarter, Manchester – CGI courtesy of LRW
That doesn’t make delivery simple, but it does mean the components connect more readily. For The Joinery, we could focus on delivering genuine quality: apartments built to National Design Space Standards, MEV KERS units converting waste heat to renewable hot water for lower running costs, PV panels achieving EPC B ratings, and rooftop amenity space with a landscaped courtyard seamlessly connecting to our neighbours and completing a new pedestrian thoroughfare to improve permeability through the city centre. The result is homes that work for residents in one of Manchester’s coolest neighbourhoods.
The fundamentals of viability, funding and delivery were understood by all parties from the outset.
What’s harder in secondary cities
Lancaster requires a different level of structuring. Institutional investors need education on why the city represents an opportunity. Our conversations with pension funds focus on what makes regional regeneration schemes investable: long-term secure income, index-linked rent, credible operators on 15- to 35-year leases.
Operators require more context. Why Lancaster? How does the Eden Project change the visitor economy? What does neighbourhood healthcare demand look like?
Planning moves more cautiously. Fewer large schemes have been processed, which means more stakeholder coordination upfront and a patient approach to timelines.
Most significantly, infrastructure that exists in Manchester doesn’t readily exist outside the region. Transport, highways, power are all key components that require joined-up thinking before large-scale regeneration can take place. The wider Canal Quarter needs the council to enact its car parking strategy before its land can be released for development.
Brewery Lane, Lancaster. Concept masterplan
Brewery Lane, Lancaster – Artist’s impression. Credit LRW
To make Brewery Lane viable, we have established a series of steering groups with city and county council representatives, NHS and Integrated Care Board stakeholders, culture and business institutions and infrastructure bodies – forums to identify potential constraints early and solve them collaboratively and quickly.
This coordination costs time and capital before any meaningful development can take place. But it’s what turns an inactive, aspirational masterplan into a deliverable reality.
Where SME developers add value
Larger developers optimise for efficiency, deploying capital at scale in markets they understand. That leads them toward core cities where those conditions exist.
Secondary cities create opportunities for SME developers prepared to invest differently. We can commit capital early to de-risk sites and establish credibility with stakeholders. We can structure schemes around what communities actually need rather than what fits a template. And we can build relationships that create long-term value beyond individual schemes.
At Brewery Lane, that means designing around real community needs: focusing on neighbourhood health, housing, business, culture and tourism and connecting to Lancaster’s existing strengths as well as delivering high quality public open space to drive long-term community benefit.
Our approach across both projects centres on collaboration with stakeholders, transparent engagement on viability and delivery, and seeing schemes through properly. The macro-economic environment – from the GFC through Brexit, Covid and current geopolitics – has proven that no development approach is risk-free. But thorough preparation and the right partnerships provide the platform to navigate challenges as they arise.
Looking ahead
The Joinery completes this year. Brewery Lane is moving through planning, with operator and investor discussions active across all different elements of the masterplan.
Regional regeneration needs developers prepared to work this way. The skills, experience and capability is there, the capital exists, the need exists, and increasingly the political will exists. What’s required now are the right partnerships to connect them.
For SME developers, that’s not a constraint. It’s the model we’re built for.
- Nick Mullins is co-founder of Axis-RE
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No details of the freehold, lease and management costs, that is even more fundamental the the energy balance.
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Lancaster’s Canal Quarter risks becoming another missed opportunity. The city has huge potential, yet progress continues to move at a frustratingly slow pace.
Key elements of the regeneration already appear uncertain. The Coopers Fields scheme, originally envisaged as a major early phase of the Canal Quarter, has stalled while the council searches for a development partner to deliver the 139-home project.
At the same time, the Nelson Street scheme being brought forward by South Lakes Housing will significantly reduce parking provision in the area, which raises legitimate concerns about the impact on access to the city centre.
Connectivity will also be critical. Unless the Brewery Lane development is properly integrated with the city centre – particularly through strong pedestrian links to St Leonard’s Gate – it risks becoming another isolated project rather than a catalyst for wider regeneration.
There are positives. The Canal Quarter masterplan has the ambition to create a mixed-use neighbourhood with hundreds of homes, commercial space, and new public areas. But that vision will only succeed if the delivery is bold, coherent, and timely.
Including large amounts of student accommodation may help viability, but the priority should be creating a balanced and sustainable community that strengthens the wider city centre.
Lancaster deserves this project to succeed. But as past schemes such as Frontier Land and the long-discussed Eden Project proposals have shown, regeneration tied too closely to slow public-sector processes can struggle to turn ambition into reality.
By Dom