Himor fires starting gun on £100m Carrington Village
The developer has put forward the first set of plans for up to 320 homes, a district centre, and 67 acres of employment land at Carrington Village, although none of the proposed houses will be for affordable tenures.
Himor’s outline application covers the existing Carrington Business Park and brownfield land south of the A1, and is set to include homes set around a local centre of three to four shops, totalling 12,900 sq ft. Uses could be either retail or a health centre, while a community centre and a petrol station are also proposed.
Employment is also a core part of the application, with up to 620,000 sq ft of industrial and logistics space proposed along with 48,000 sq ft of offices.
The estimated £104m investment in the brownfield site also includes the relocation of Carrington Rugby Club; the developer will build the club a new full-sized pitch, training pitch, and a clubhouse.
There are also plans for walking and cycling routes, landscaping and ecology works as well as green open space for public use.
Access to the development will come via Manchester Road and the A1; the housing element is situated north of the A1, with the employment areas to the north west and south.
The proposals border a site which is currently being built out by Wainhomes; this secured consent in 2018 and includes 277 homes, while Himor is also currently on site nearby delivering 219,000 sq ft of employment space across six buildings.
While housing forms a core part of the latest proposals by Himor, the developer is not proposing any of these for affordable tenures, citing viability issues.
According to a viability report put together by Cushman & Wakefield, the scheme has a gross development value of £104m, but will cost £80m to develop. The residual site value is £7.6m, while benchmark land value stands at £18.4m, or £180,000 per acre. Cushman & Wakefield estimates a viability deficit of £10.7m for the scheme, taking into account a 15% developer profit.
As a result, no affordable homes are to be brought forward, with a Section 106 agreement to feature the £825,000 location of the rugby club, £776,000 towards Trafford’s Community Infrastructure Levy, and a combined £350,000 towards improvements on Carrington Lane and Flixton Road.
The submission of a planning application follows two public consultation events last month. Aecom has advised Himor on the latest proposals for the site.
Overall, the wider Future Carrington site is expected to deliver around 6,100 homes and 4.4m sq ft of employment space, having been allocated as Trafford’s largest Green Belt release under the emerging Greater Manchester Spatial Framework.
Earlier this year, cash from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund was secured at the site to deliver a link road through Carrington. This won a funding package of £8.4m but does not form part of the latest planning application by Himor, with planning consent the responsibility of Trafford Council.
