March submission for 100,000 sq ft Manchester office
Designed by Glenn Howells Architects, the Lever Street building would “respond to the current lack of grade A office space in the Northern Quarter”, according to developer Soller Group.
Place North West revealed 12 months ago that Soller was drawing up plans for a 100,000 sq ft office development in Manchester.
Now, a consultation on the 15-storey proposals has launched and a planning application is expected to be submitted in March.
If approved, work on the development could begin next summer and complete three years later.
The scheme is expected to provide a £60m boost to the local economy and accommodate around 800 workers once complete.
Soller completed the acquisition of the site in 2020.
The plot, which is occupied by restaurants Bem Brasil and Golden Tandoori, among others, was in disparate ownership and the acquisition period lasted six months, according to the developer.
As part of the scheme, much of the historic façade facing Lever Street is to be retained.
Avison Young is advising on planning.
I hope they bring this forward much needed in the area and refreshing design.
By Anonymous
Looks good, get it built! Perfect location for an office, especially as the Northern Quarter is still very derelict in a lot of parts!
By MC
Not like Manchester to have clashing buildings lol
By Levelling Up Manager
There’s over a million sq ft empty already
By Cal
I don’t usually mind facadism but this is bonkers. If you have decided to design a gigantic 15-storey glass office in the style of the Express Building, what is the benefit of retaining some weird low rise brick in front of it?
By W
32-34 Great Ancoats Street need retaining too; if they can do this it will be one of the best schemes in years.
By 1981
@Cal and take up each year is over 1million sq ft…do the maths
By OfficeLegend
15 storeys seems excessive in comparison to others locally !!!
By Max
I believe we’d have so many more creative, marketing, PR, comms and media businesses here if we had more office space in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter. This and Central Retail Park will give a big boost to the creative sector.
By Get It Built
I agree with Max. It’s way out of scale with its neighbouring buildings.
By Anonymous
15 storeys is perfectly fine for a 21st Century city centre. Get it built.
By S
Is it weird that I actually like it? So odd it seems to work.
By Tom
Oh show us Cal please. Show us what your reports are saying that all the others Arn’t or at least share your sources.
By Dan
Max, you’ve got a 33 storey tower going up two blocks down. This is just middle height and won’t overpower either Lever Street, because it’ll be stepped back or GAS as it’ll be small in comparison to its near neighbour. Just plans needed for the Travelodge now with the Spear Street development cracking on it’s to big a site to leave as it is.
By John
It would be useful Cal if you did give us some insight into your anti office anti Manchester bias. You do regularly post on here with both opinions which are well known but also quoting stats which are not and seemingly can’t be verified. Do you have sources that this community doesn’t have access to? If so I genuinely would be interested as an addition to the Avison Young, Bruntwood , etc reports we usually see.Balance is important when reviewing such things and actual numbers tell an interesting story.
By Anonymous
“the Lever Street building would “respond to the current lack of grade A office space in the Northern Quarter””
Is it really in the City Council’s town planning masterplan to have grade A offices in every subarea of the city centre? Will this not dilute the character of the Northern Quarter and why it is so popular in what it does?
By Anon
I agree with Tom it is odd but seems to work very well. Also echo the other comments about other talls being nearby so it should work but isn’t the NQ meant to be heritage protected? It has bags of character and is unconventionally beautiful but has already lost its edge to other neighbourhoods. As long as they keep the talls to the arterial routes it would be an own goal.
By Anonymous
Another large office development. Excellent. Who is it that comes on here every now again and says ‘the office is dead’ ? Ha ha, could not be more wrong!
By Anonymous
Get it built! Get quality jobs into Manchester.
Make sure it ticks the green quota …a few street trees etc. Manchester needs to grow for a new generation …don’t be holding it back with negativity!
By Manc
can’t get rid of the Golden Tandoori!!
By meh