Manchester Life sites receive council sign-off
Manchester City Council has approved the construction of 650 homes at its latest planning committee meeting, including two applications for Manchester Life sites in Ancoats and New Islington.
The joint venture between the council and Manchester City FC owner Abu Dhabi United Group plans to deliver a £1bn investment across 6,000 units by 2027. The first phase announced in March, at New Union Street next to the Rochdale Canal and Murrays’ Mill, will bring forward 424 apartments.
The 2.4-acre vacant site at New Union Street has been earmarked for three mixed-use residential buildings of between eight and 10-storeys, totalling 302 apartments. The scheme was designed by RTKL, while Deloitte advised on planning.
At Murrays’ Mill in Bengal Street, Manchester Life will convert the listed warehouse to create 108 flats, alongside a new-build five-storey block with a further 16 flats, and public ream which would see the infilling of canal basin.
The apartments at New Union Street and Murrays’ Mill are both aimed at the rented market, and are the first of six developments sites for Manchester Life that are set to deliver 900 homes.
Construction work is set to start in autumn 2015 with completion by mid-2017.
A 160-apartment scheme by DeTrafford Estates Group on Chester Road has also been approved.
Designed by Ollier Smurthwaite Architects, the block includes 154 apartments in one 12-storey building with six ground-floor commercial units, and a second four-storey property with six apartments and two more commercial spaces. The designs feature a community square in the centre of the development.
The apartments are to include a mix of housing types, with three-bedroom triplex apartments and one- and two-bedroom duplex apartments with communal roof terraces. Paul Butler Associates advised on the planning application.
Lovell Homes has also received sign-off for the development of 164 two- and three-storey homes on an 11-acre site at Ashton Old Road.
The houses will be made up of a mix of 45 two-bedroom, 97 three-bedroom, and 22 four-bedroom properties.