Kellen requests £12.6m GM loan for Rochdale homes 

The housebuilder has bid for cash from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund to support the redevelopment of the former Rex Mill site into 311 houses. 

Kellen Homes, which is backed by Renaker managing director Daren Whitaker, won planning approval for the Rochdale project in August. 

The £12.5m from the GM Housing Investment Loans Fund would go towards the creation of 45 affordable homes, 99 build-to-rent properties and 167 homes for open market sale. 

Sigma PRS will manage the build-to-rent element of the scheme. 

Set on 31 acres off Don Street in Middleton and bisected by the River Irk, the site is a mix of greenfield and brownfield and as such was allocated up to £3.68m from the Greater Manchester Brownfield Housing Fund for remediation. 

If approved, Kellen Homes’ housing investment loan would take the amount awarded through the fund to £656.1m. 

This money is supporting the delivery of 8,154 new homes.  

Last month, Blueoak requested permission to take out a £11.3m loan from the fund. The developer, which is delivering the 110-apartment redevelopment of Alexander House in Old Trafford, is now seeking an additional £300,000 due to the rising cost of the project. 

Chester-based Blueoak acquired the 63,000 sq ft Talbot Road building, previously occupied by law firm Horwich Farrelly, from Cadence Real Estate earlier this year. 

Horwich Farrelly has since relocated to 16,040 sq ft at Orange, a building at Media City.