McLaren student homes and Chorlton Lidl tipped for green light
Manchester City Council’s planning committee will meet next week to decide whether to approve the 318-bedroom Rusholme development and the 22,000 sq ft supermarket.
The two schemes will be discussed at the same meeting as proposals for Bruntwood Works’ 82,000 sq ft Ev0 office project in Didsbury and the mixed-use redevelopment of the Great Northern site off Deansgate in Manchester City Centre.
St Gabriel’s Lodge redevelopment
The new-build elements will bookend the retained buildings. Credit: via consultation documents
Developer: McLaren Property
Architect: SimpsonHaugh
Planner: Avison Young
The project would see the creation of 318 student bedrooms on the site of St Gabriel’s Lodge off Oxford Road.
McLaren Property’s scheme features a mix of studios and cluster apartments delivered across refurbished and new-build elements.
The derelict modern extension to St Gabriel’s Lodge would be demolished, as will St David’s Church Hall, making way for a pair of four-storey blocks that bookend the site.
Woodthorpe Hall and the original St Gabriel’s Lodge and church would be retained and redeveloped.
None of the buildings on the Oxford Place plot are listed. The site was previously used as female-only accommodation for students at the University of Manchester.
To learn more about the project, search for reference number 135278/FO/2022 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
On nearby Upper Brook Street, McLaren is drawing up a masterplan for a major mixed-use scheme, which could feature a 600-bed student development and a life sciences facility to be operated by Kadans.
Chorlton Lidl
The supermarket would have a 14,000 sales area plus car parking. Credit: via Lidl
Developer: Lidl UK
Architect: Space Architects
Planner: Rapleys
Lidl acquired the plot on the junction of Mauldeth Road West and Nell Lane in Chorlton from PJD Holdings for £4m last year.
The discount retailer wants to build a 22,000 sq ft supermarket on the plot.
The site is currently occupied by the 27,000 sq ft Lowry House office building.
Under the plans, the new supermarket would have a 14,000 internal sales area featuring an in-store bakery and customer toilets, as well as 88 car parking spaces.
The store would feature “a contemporary building design that will benefit the surrounding area”, according to Lidl.
The new store forms part of Lidl’s ongoing £1.3bn investment across the country made this year and last.
To learn more about the project, search for reference number 135647/FO/2022 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
These one storey Lidls in urban locations, man. Crazy. This location, Mocha Parade and the Castle Irwell locations would be prime for a “5 over 1” type building with commercial on the ground floor and apartments above. Crazy that we’re building flat stores with tarmac this close to a Metrolink stop. Lidl will be sitting on some pretty valuable land in 20+ years time when these stores come to the end of their build life. Let’s hope they build properly then.
By Lidl More Density Pls
I agree with the comment so far. Reminds me of the Netto supermarket in Whalley Range, and that was early 90s. It’s just product parking at this point and doesn’t seem healthy for good living. Give it urban twist or put it out on some industrial lay-by.
By 20 th Century Effort
Agree with the above comment – crazy how apartments aren’t being proposed on top of this, or being required by the Council.
By Chris W
Agree with the other comment on here, I live very close to proposal and the area is dying for some low level flats, a gym, and a Lidl can very mugh be part of that mix. Build something like Ancoats’ Urband Exchange, with some flats on top.
The total lack of a decent commercial gym between Stretford and East Didsbury is genuinely astonishing. Chorlton itself literally doesn’t have a gym.
By Anon
Crazy to be building low site cover supermarkets on a tram stop in one of Manchester’s best suburbs. Some leisure with high quality apartments would have been perfect for this location, although appreciate resi developers are struggling with costs.
By Discounter
I think a gym in Chorlton would be a bit rough tbh
By Phi