M&G to back Glenbrook’s 44-storey Manchester BTR
A tower on Whitworth Street West featuring 364 apartments is progressing towards a start on site with the investor close to finalising a deal to finance the development as part of its £1bn multi-family fund following a £17m commitment from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
According to a report published by the GMCA, M&G will provide equity and debt for Glenbrook’s 44-storey project, which received formal planning approval from Manchester City Council yesterday.
GMCA will provide £17m of patient equity from its Good Growth Fund. To facilitate the deal, the combined authority and a subsidiary of M&G will enter into a joint venture.
The agreement demonstrates how the Good Growth Fund is intended to operate; whereby the public sector provides an amount of capital to plug a viability gap that leverages in in private investment.
Subject to the completion of the funding deal, the scheme will come forward as part of M&G’s £1bn multi-family platform, set up in 2025 to deliver 3,000 homes in London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds and backed by a Korean pension fund.
All parties were contacted for comment.
Deloitte is the scheme’s planning consultant, landscape and urbanism practice Layer.studio designed the public realm. Consultants on the project include Hilson Moran, AKT II, Futureserv, OFR, Mainer, Curtins, Quartz, and GIA. The scheme can be found on Manchester City Council’s planning portal, using the reference number 141773/FO/2024.
The Whitworth Street West scheme is one of three at an advanced stage of the Good Growth Fund process. The £17m earmarked for Glenbrook’s scheme is due to be signed off by GMCA’s investment sub-committee next week.
At the same meeting, Cole Waterhouse and investor partner Heim are expected to get approval for £26m of patient equity for 382 flats in Old Trafford, while Harworth, in the throes of a takeover by Peel, is to get a £17m loan for an 800,000 sq ft industrial scheme in Bolton.
Since last November, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has committed more than £1bn from the Good Growth Fund to projects across the city region.
