MMU and Unite firm up intent for 2,300 student beds
Manchester Metropolitan University has formally entered into a joint venture with Unite Students, as the partners near a planning submission for the £390m project at Cambridge Halls.
Unite, which will pony up £275m of the total project costs, will be developer, asset manager and operator to the JV, with a 70% ownership share.
The plans were floated in January as consultation was carried out on the redevelopment of the Cambridge Halls site, which is seen as a big opportunity to develop the volume of bedspaces the university requires.
A project team including architect Cartwright Pickard, Turley as planner, Waterman Group, and re-form landscape architecture, is working with the partnership.
Plans are expected to go in this quarter, with work starting in 2026 and delivery hoped for in 2029 and 2030.
The existing facility at Cambridge Halls, which was constructed in the 1990s, provides just 770 beds. MMU has committed to close the existing accommodation on the site, with work due to commence on-site later this year.
Having celebrated its 200-year anniversary in 2024, Manchester Metropolitan University is the UK’s seventh largest university by student numbers and the fourth largest educator of undergraduates.
Unite said the JV will deepen its longstanding relationship with MMU, where it has provided accommodation under nomination agreements for over 20 years.
The firm said that there remains a shortage of purpose-built student accommodation in Manchester with 3.6 full-time students per bed, driving demand for new accommodation.
The plans include public space. Credit: Virtual Planit
Andrew Fallon, chief property officer at MMU, said: “We are delighted to announce our partnership with Unite Students for the redevelopment of Cambridge Halls. This joint venture will provide much needed additional purpose-built student accommodation in Manchester, right on the doorstep of our University.
“The project will not only enhance the quality of housing for students, but also benefit the surrounding community through new health, wellbeing, and retail offerings.”
Joe Lister, Unite Students chief executive officer, commented: “Partnering with Manchester Metropolitan University to redevelop Cambridge Halls and deliver much needed, high-quality and affordable accommodation for 2,300 students is a hugely exciting step for Unite Students.
“Our joint-venture partnership will provide further support to Manchester Metropolitan University in meeting their accommodation needs at a time of real housing shortage, so they can focus on providing a world-class experience for their students.”
This is the second university JV undertaken by Unite.
Under the terms of the JV, MMU will own a 30% stake, reflecting the contribution of the Cambridge Halls site. Unite’s initial equity commitment is expected to be around £125m for its 70% stake, which will be funded from internally generated sources, with the remaining funding coming from debt secured against the JV.
Unite said the project is expected to deliver returns comparable with developments in regional cities, which also reflects the fees Unite will receive as development and asset manager to the JV.
To support the university’s accommodation requirements during the development phase, the company has separately entered into a five-year nomination agreement for 2,550 beds in other Unite Students properties in Manchester.
Woah!! Please tell me those are graphics of what they’re demolishing?!
It looks like 60’s Eastern Bloc!
By Anonymous
Soviet Union architecture is alive and kicking. It’s a truly awful design.
By Anonymous
‘. . pony up. . ‘ Really?
It is a bit of a grim design
By Clouded leopard
OMG that is terrible! Needs a complete redesign.
By Andrew
Could not agree more, this is taking is backwards. The problem is with the planners, they are happy to let through these brutalist buildings. Another insult to Manchester.
By mcleod
Looks good… as long as there is a clear route through from Oxford Road, removing the mistakes of the past of building over this important link through to Hulme.
By Anonymous
They look a bit space age. If they introduced a few more interesting features I could really like them tbh
By Anonymous
Yet more grey ! What a communist horror show design . Horrendous .
By Anonymous
Comrade Stalin would be proud. We must equalise the outcome of well-being between the proletariat and bourgeoisie.
By Anonymous
Just wondering if the moaners are the same crew who constantly slag off SHA glass boxes?
By Rhubarb
This development should not be allowed to remove a key cycling route
By Anonymous
Rhubarb this proposal would improve by being a glass box. The current design is awful.
By Anonymous
Knee jerk reaction is it looks cool. 10 seconds of thought tells me those materials will age terribly in a temperate environment and it will end up looking spectacularly grotty. Dress for the weather you want shouldn’t be an architectural principle
By H
Rhubarb – no. This scheme has decent ground floor activation, varied cladding, and has been designed to define the street wall. SH could never
By Anonymous
disgusting to see mmu working with unite considering Unite are one of the biggest dangers to student living with the price they charge for their accomadation
By CJ
You have to look at the upside of this design; this would make a brilliant film/TV location for a gritty 1970s police drama.
By Anonymous
Yes mmu are not allowing cycles through it and have been trying for 5 years to close Cavendish Street to cycles
By Andrew wigley
It’s really disappointing that this scheme risks blocking a key arterial cycle route into the city centre from south Manchester—especially from areas like Chorlton, Urmston, Old Trafford and Salford. It would sever one of the best continuous cycling corridors into Manchester. A massive step backwards.
By Anonymous
Rhubarb, why can’t we dislike this and also the SHA copy and paste towers? What’s the problem?
By Anonymous
I will object to this when the time comes. The removal of the cycle route through the middle of the site is unforgiveable and goes against Manchester policies and strategies to encourage active travel.
By Mike
MMU and Unite have totally ignored the consultation responses here. There is a strategic cycle route which goes from the A56 near where it meets the M60 on the border of Sale all the way along to Piccadilly Station. This development will sever that route. The design is dangerous and might see people cycling illegally on a deliberately narrowed path. This can’t go ahead – one one of the busiest routes for every day people cycling, you can’t expect people to do a couple of dangerous left/right manoeuvres across traffic round blind bends.
By What consultation
It doesn’t look good, won’t reflect well on the great work done at All Saints and the removal of the cycleway will only further damage Man Met’s reputation in the city. Hated from Hulme to Chorlton and beyond.
By Anonymous