Masterplan launched for £7.3bn Old Trafford Regeneration
A major milestone for arguably the country’s most intriguing regeneration proposition has been reached with the unveiling of the 30-year vision for the 370 acres around Manchester United’s planned new stadium.
Designed by Allies and Morrison, SLA, Civic, and JLL, the Wharfside masterplan for the £7.3bn Old Trafford regeneration project features plans for 15,000 homes, has the potential to accommodate 48,000 jobs, and will be anchored by a 100,000-capacity stadium for the Red Devils.
The stadium, which is likely to cost billions to construct, will be located on 25 acres Manchester United recently acquired from Indurent around 350 metres north-west of the existing ground, which does not appear in the masterplan.
The masterplan states that the likely delivery window for the stadium is between 2031 and 2035.
The ground and homes are just two elements of the masterplan, which covers an area roughly the size of Manchester city centre and was aired for the first time at an event in the Manchester Suite at Old Trafford this morning.
Employment space, infrastructure improvements, and parks also feature within Allies and Morrison’s vision, which sets out how people might use and move around the area.
The site is split into six distinct character areas. Credit: Allies and Morrison
Among the green spaces planned is one called Central Midfield, a 7.4-acre park between the new stadium and the Imperial War Museum.
Wharfside is split into six distinctive character areas:
- Wharfside Waters – A high-density, predominantly high-rise water-side residential neighbourhood.
- Wharfside Central – A medium- to high-density, mixed-use neighbourhood centred around a new city park.
- Stadium District – A commercial sports and leisure district, anchored by the new Manchester United stadium.
- Wharfside South – A medium- to high-density, mixed-use neighbourhood between Bridgewater Canal and the railway, connected to Gorse Hill.
- Waters Meeting – A lower-scale mixed tenure residential neighbourhood aimed at families
- City Threshold – A high-density gateway area located at the intersection of several existing and emerging neighbourhoods
Tall buildings within the masterplan would top out at 40 storeys and would be focused on strip of land fronting the Manchester Ship Canal.
The site is in fractured ownership but six landowners own 60% of the 370-acre plot with Manchester United being the largest single landowner. Freightliner also owns a significant chunk of the site and the company and its operations are the subject of complex relocation plans.
Trafford Council and the mayoral development corporation established to spearhead regen efforts will likely have to use CPO powers to assemble land.
View the masterplan and participate in the consultation
Speaking about the plans, Cllr Tom Ross, Leader of Trafford Council, said the opportunity regenerate the land around Old Trafford was “an open goal that we won’t miss”
“What other local authority wouldn’t tear their right arm off to have the opportunity to be able to create something like this?” he said.
“This is our vision. This is what success looks like. Not short-term thinking, hoping for the best and keeping our fingers crossed. It’s about long-term goals, ambitious goals and communal goals.”
Click on any image to launch gallery
- The site sits at the heart of the masterplan. Credit: Allies and Morrison
I’m super exciting to see future of Old Trafford stadium probably I will be 60 years old grrrrr lol but I love all images of future of Old Trafford 👍🏻
By G J Kitchener
No public money. Man U to pay for everything including enhanced infrastructure.
By Anon
The thing is this will be delivered well before The Kings or anything for that matter down the M62. Keep watching .
By The threekings
The Stadium site seems quite tight. Doesn’t it need wider entrance points and wouldn’t the club want more infrastructure around the stadium itself?
By Paul
The would be brilliant for the city. Proper transformational.
By MainRoadMary
This is next level stuff, you have to love the ambition. I hope it comes off.
I have to say though, building that many homes and the countries biggest stadoum next to a railway line, but actively removing a train station is insanity. I hope that’s not true, I will have a look at the consultation later.
By Anonymous
Northern Powerhouse Rail needs to come this way instead of the ‘agreed’ route. This area will be busier than Wembley for heaven’s sake.
By WayFay
Seem no rail station in Old Trafford I just wonder why removed it…. need a more information about it.
By G J Kitchener
Anon 10.27am – the Manchester City stadium was fully funded using public money which was a good investment because it was the catalyst for the regeneration of East Manchester and brought in private sector investment. Unlike City United will fully fund the stadium but infrastructure associated with the housing, reclaiming contaminated brownfield sites will inevitably require public funding. Why should United be judged differently to other similar organisations.
By Anonymous
No public money. Let the club pay. The owner doesnt even pay tax yet has sacked hundreds of loyal staff, who were all tax payers!
By Riley N
Fantastic news. Looking forward to seeing the proper plans for the stadium. Looking at the ones in the USA it shows what can be done with a little imagination, rather than a soulless bowel. United will be commercially unstoppable if they get this right
By Bob
Looks great! Only 40 storeys tho? Come on! And more green space please and thousands of street trees please.
By Niiiice
High density housing packed in like sardines looks horrendous
By Anonymous
Anon 10.27 please try to be more positive
Banging on about who pays for infrastructure is rather silly
All major developments have the communal benefits subsidised by local or national government as they enhance and improve the general area for everyone
By Anonymous
Any 30 year vision should have underground transit at the front and centre.
By Anonymous
Agree with MainRoadMary, a huge opportunity for the city. I do have doubts on whether Man Utd will stick with their ambitious stadium design.
By Paul the Joiner
I guess the working model is Wembley.
By Rich X
The Allies and Morrison team and SLA are a great combination to be working on this opportunity. Fantastic experience across the world and the public realm could be fantastic
By Anonymous
You don’t have to question a project of this scale when it comes to Manchester. You just know it’s going to happen. A city to be envious of, unlike the Cesspool down the East Lancs.
By Stephen Hart
Re Riley N
Jim Radcliffe has lost £6 Billion off his fortune this past year, the poor guy is nearly on his uppers.
By Peter Chapman
Bob at 10.08
Was ‘ soulless bowel’ a Freudian slip?
By Clement F
Let us pray that SimpsonHaugh won’t be involved in any of this!
By John
That is genuinely impressive if they can deliver. On the other side of Manchester City have really transformed the area around the stadium. If anyone can remember that area back in the day there was a giant casino proposed ! What a shift in Manchesters fortunes since then.
By Anonymous
The ‘no public money’ callers clearly have no idea about how regeneration and development finance works. There will, undoubtedly, be public benefits from this development – very significant public benefits – from, for instance, the provision of new homes to the creation of thousands of new jobs. Public sector borrowing rates are significantly lower than private sector borrowing rates; public money can pay for things like critical infrastructure, being paid back in the long term by things like savings in housing benefits and increased tax and business rates income. Public sector money can also directly subsidise private elements of the developments, with loans that are repaid, with interest, when development is completed and generates an income.
Correct – it should never be just public money spent without any potential return, but that’s not how these things work. You only have to look over the other side of the city to see how public and private sector money can work together to successfully deliver significant regeneration benefits.
By Anonymous
Will there be more temporary visitor moorings available to boat owners or are wharves not for boats any more? Are you erasing the whole point of inland waterways?
By Sylvia Taylor
Old Trafford stadium has a railway station and nearby tram lines but this is a great opportunity to introduce an underground system linking the city centre and sports city in the east and the Trafford centre in the west.
By Anonymous
I wonder where the 48,000 jobs are coming from. It would seem to me that this whole scheme is based on hyperbole and wishful thinking. If the enhanced infrastructure is paid for using public money, then the build relies on that money. Manchester United should pay for all the infrastructure as well as thier build, if they dont it should not go ahead. This whole scheme should be paid for by Manchester United.
By Anonymous
What happened to the ice rink??
By PatL
x2 data centers in that area, what’s happening to them?
By Anon
Masterplans (not even a word) are LAs’ favourite form of procrastination. That sweet sense of achievement without actually having done anything (except pay loads of consultants).
By (Break-it)
Bit of a silly comment about masterplans – how else do you see something like this coming forward in a co-ordinated and well-designed way?
By Anonymous
To allow this land grab and build of yet more high rise flats Freightliner will be moved from a brownfield site to a greenbelt site wrecking 100s of acres of arable farmland. Flies completely in the face of any EA recommendation. Still at least all the usual snouts will be in the trough around manchester. Meanwhile the small villages of Lowton, Winwick, Croft and Culcheth will be decimated with their infrastructure already broken. Oh and BTW don’t expect thd M6 between Lymm and the East lancs to move very well it will be clogged forever.
By StSimon