Beijing Construction to build Middlewood Locks for Scarborough

The McCabe family’s Scarborough Group International has selected Beijing Construction & Engineering Group as preferred contractor for its £700m Middlewood Locks development in Salford.

The project covers 24 acres and will contain residential and commercial space, located at the western gateway to Manchester city centre.

Last month, Scarborough announced China’s Xinjiang Hualing Industry & Trade Group as investor in Middlewood Locks.

BCEGI has been working with Scarborough on the design for the detailed planning application for the first phases of the development. These first phases will comprise the development of 550 homes, 29,000 sq ft of commercial space and extensive public realm, canal footpaths and cycle ways that will connect directly into the city centre. The application was submitted earlier this month with a planning decision expected in before the end of the year. This would then enable Scarborough to start on site in the first quarter of 2016.

BCEGI first entered the UK market through an investment in Airport City, Manchester, announced in October 2013. The company has been actively pursuing further investment opportunities in the UK and in August 2015, announced its most recent investment in St Michael’s, Manchester.

Middlewood Locks received outline planning consent in March 2015 from Salford City Council to deliver a new mixed use community of around 2,000 new homes and up to 750,000 sq ft of commercial development space for mixed commercial uses including offices, hotel, shops, delis, restaurants, a convenience store and gym. The development is centred on three large basins of the Manchester Bolton and Bury Canal.

The scheme is being developed by FairBriar International, a joint venture between Scarborough, Top Spring International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed developer, and Metro Holdings, a Singapore-listed property development and investment group.

Lee Savage, development director of Scarborough, said: “Middlewood Locks is a unique site with the potential to deliver thousands of new homes, jobs and a first-class business destination. The selection of BCEGI means that we are on track to deliver the first phases of the development and we are confident that this scheme will be transformational for Salford and its wider regeneration activities.”