All systems go for £117m Manchester Tower 

Russell WBHO is aiming to start on site in June having been formally appointed by the consortium delivering the long-awaited 35-storey residential development.

Developers Featherfoot Whitworth Street and Altrincham-based EGCC Group have lodged a building control application of the Whitworth Street West scheme with Manchester City Council, the culmination of months of hard work, according to EGCC director Dean Hewart.

“We are fully in motion and preparing for a start on site late in Q2,” Hewart said. 

“There has been a lot of activity behind the scenes and all the professional team has now been formally appointed.” 

Once work starts, the project will take three years to complete, Hewart added.

Featherfoot Whitworth Street and EGCC Group bought the site last October from Brigantes for £8.75m, as reported by Place North West. 

Development funding of £78m for the 327-home Manchester Tower has also been agreed, according to broker Adapt Finance. 

The project team for Manchester Tower includes architect Jon Matthews, who has been involved in the scheme since plans were first lodged in July 2015. 

Brigantes won planning consent for the scheme that year and it was then reported that Inhabit Residential was bringing the project forward but work never started.

Inhabit, run by directors of Mercer Real Estate, was dissolved in March last year, according to Companies House. 

Manchester Tower, which will feature a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments for sale,  is to be constructed on a site next to the City Road Inn and opposite Axis Tower, another Jon Matthews-designed project built by Russells. 

The site is also close to another proposed development, Arrowsmith’s 26-storey Apex Tower.   

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Not the most exciting tower but glad it’s finally going ahead. Although surely this, combined with Axis, will make Whitworth St a rather windy place.

By Alex

Good news! Looking forward to seeing this one rise!

By Steve

This is a very pleasantly surprising bit of news. I don’t think the design is awe inspiring, but the plot is very tight, the location perfect and will add to what is a very interesting part of the city. It’s really going to become sense and seemingly full of life, activity and interest, from the ground up to the clouds.

I can say I am very much looking forward to seeing this one go up and should provide some great viewing alongside Axis and the towers going up nearby.

By The Squirrel's Nuts

Great to see this one finally go ahead. One of the best tower proposals pre-recession and still a very exciting design today. More excited for this than a bunch of the glass towers going up.

By Andrew

Yet another mediocre design. But this has become commonplace in Manchester. Manchester desperately needs better architects.

By John

ok , only 35 stories but this has been sometime in the making so glad its happening at last.

By anonymous

Now if they could only sort out a decent pedestrian route to get there from St Peter’s Square. It’s a real mess at the moment at the intersection with Great Bridgewater Street.

By John

It’s going to be so windy, it’s grim at Deansgate Square with that wind, regretful

By Dan

It fills a gap, and this is plain but sometimes less is more.

By Elephant

Underwhelming and dated.

By 1981

Glory be…this appears to see off Axis. If only.

By Phil Griffin

I like to see these new developments going ahead. I just wish they had some more architectural merit about them as you see in many major city’s of the world.

By Peter Chapman

Still trotting out the invisible Axis CGI. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if that were the case.

By Gene Walker

No Balconies but I like it.

By Cal

Bog standard tower.

If it’s glorified student accommodation aimed at graduates then fair enough but if the developers and planners want people to settle down and stay long term in this type of housing then it will need space, large balconies, plentiful storage, practical and adaptable layouts and high quality amenity amenity space.

By Balcony watch

This is way too close to the recently completed Axis development (I know Axis has been omitted from the CGI).

By Chris

Wonderful site and doubtless it will sell out quickly As for Balconies…Meh…who needs em.,This is North West Britain not the Italian Riviera .

By Anonymous

Re: everyone who has noted the absence of Axis from the image. We’re using an older CGI, which was done prior to Axis being completed. We’d love to have an updated image as well and have requested one. We have opted to continue using this image in the meantime so that you can have an idea of what the building itself will look like.

By Julia Hatmaker

Axis – another eyesore. And this one, another banal and lazy design. And what’s that thing at the top? Looks like a toaster. Get the Italians in to design us a few decent buildings.

By John

BOG standard means British or German standard. Should be good.

By James Hayes

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