Greengate masterplan set for adoption

Salford’s city mayor Paul Dennett will next week be asked to approve the updated framework for the Greengate area, which has become a hotspot for high-rise development.

In 2017, the council’s regeneration officers commissioned Urban Vision and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios to review and refresh the framework adopted by Salford in 2014. The draft of the updated framework was consulted on between November and January, with a further round of consultation undertaken with residents of Abito between 23 March and 20 April.

Since the initial framework was adopted, development has been intensive in Greengate, exceeding council expectations. Completions within the 32-acre Greengate area include One Greengate, Embankment 101, now home to Swinton, and City Suites, the aparthotel brand that is part of Select Property Group.

Schemes on site include Renaker’s 100 Greengate – formerly known as Exchange Court – and The Residence, a 34-storey PRS scheme by Liverpool developer Elliot Group.

Work at 100 Embankment, a 166,000 sq ft office block, is expected to start soon after a forward-funding deal was agreed in March. Select has further plans in the area too, with Embankment West set to bring 503 apartments in three blocks of around 16 storeys each.

The report to the Mayor states that “developer interest in Greengate continues to accelerate with discussions ongoing on a number of key sites”. For all the activity in the area, there remain plentiful opportunities, with several surface car parks and older industrial buildings, along with vacant railway arches.

The strategy splits Greengate into three areas: Collier Street Magnet, Central Greengate and Greengate Riverside. The first of these focuses on low-rise development and developing the area’s cultural offer around the former Collier Street Baths.

At Central Greengate, where it is expected the next significant phase of development to take place, the focus will be on mid-level development with the new Greengate Park as the centrepiece of a public realm strategy that looks to create improved linkages through from Collier Street to Market Cross, with Greengate Boulevard as the main focus.

As previously reported by Place North West, the tall buildings within the strategy fall within the Greengate Riverside area, already busy with cranes. The vision maps out opportunities for between two and three high rise blocks along Queen Street, Gravel Lane, and Greengate.

There is also an opportunity to develop two further high-rise blocks, one along the River Irwell between Exchange Court and  One Greengate, and another along Trinity Way, across the road from The Residence.