Maryland’s £58m Brunswick Place approved

Manchester City Council signed off on the 277-home scheme at its planning meeting on Thursday after conducting a site visit.

The granting of planning permission did come with strings, however. It is dependent on a re-evaluation of the Maryland Securities scheme at an agreed point in time to determine its viability.

At present, Manchester planning development manager Dave Roscoe said the scheme’s profit is slated to be 18%, which puts it beneath the 20% threshold for providing affordable housing contributions. Brunswick Place, as it stands, does not include any social housing.

Hodder + Partners designed the scheme, which will see the historic mill buildings turned into 150 apartments with an assortment of townhouses in the surrounding area, as well as 20,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Roscoe told the councillors that the project could help the mill, noting that “we’ve lost far too many mill buildings in the Ancoats area”.

He went on to say that Brunswick Place “could be the most splendid [of the restored mills] if the right level of investment and refurbishment were undertaken”.

Maryland’s application also includes plans to create a public path through the site, connecting Bradford Road to the Ashton Canal towpath.

Brunswick Place had initially been deferred when it went before the planning committee, with councillors choosing to wait until they conducted a site visit to pass judgement. At the 23 September meeting, the scheme passed in a 6 to 2 vote.

Deloitte Real Estate is the planning consultant for the project and Stephen Levrant: Heritage Architecture advised on heritage.