Mount Anvil selected for Kampus

Joint venture partners, Henry Boot Developments and Capital & Centric have appointed specialist London residential contractor Mount Anvil on its £250m Kampus scheme on Aytoun Street, Piccadilly in Manchester.

Erection of hoardings, stripping out and demolition of some of the disused buildings started on site this week.

Planning permission was granted last September for the first phase of 478 rental apartments, 30,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space on the ground and mezzanine floors beneath two 12-16 storey new buildings. The existing 1960s Aytoun Tower and timber townhouses will be retained.

Adam Higgins of Capital & Centric commented: “It’s important to us to retain what buildings we can no matter what era they are from. We are obviously keeping the two listed mills but we also plan to incorporate the big 1960s tower. It may appear quite ugly and run down at the moment but bringing this back to life has always been an important part of the vision for Kampus. The tower has some amazing features that we will retain including concrete waffle ceilings, 1960s stairs, signage graphics and doors. There will be nothing else like this in Manchester.”

Demolition is expected to be complete by the end of this summer with phase one due to be ready for occupation by 2020.