Lendlease eyes £200m Renaissance rebuild
Lendlease has emerged as one of the main contenders to build Urban & Civic’s £200m masterplan for the Renaissance hotel site on Manchester’s Deansgate, Place North West understands.
The scheme will see three towers of 45, 22, and 11 storeys in height, accommodating a 250-bed five-star hotel, 600 apartments, and conference, retail, and public space.
Designed by architect Glenn Howells, the proposals also include extensive public realm which is earmarked to take up around 86,000 sq ft, or 58% of the total site. There will also be pedestrian connections across the site to link it with Greengate, the River Irwell, and the area around Manchester Cathedral.
Manchester City Council endorsed the strategic regeneration framework for the site, which has long been earmarked for redevelopment, in March this year ahead of a public consultation.
Lendlease is understood to be looking at delivering the site as Urban & Civic’s construction partner, the latest in a series of high-profile jobs in the city the contractor has put itself forward for.
The firm is already working with Urban & Civic in the city on Manchester New Square off Princess Street.
Lendlease has also been confirmed as construction partner for Allied London’s £1bn St Johns alongside McLaren, revealed by Place North West earlier this year, while the contractor is also one of the main bidders for the £330m renovation of Manchester Town Hall alongside Laing O’Rourke.
Manchester City Council, which owns the freehold of the site, has said the site would be a challenge to redevelop with a number of constraints around its structural layout.
The council said: “This has posed difficulties for previous owners in both masterplanning and funding terms, and has been one of the principal reasons that development has taken such a long time to be brought forward.”
Urban & Civic has a 125-year lease on the land and the council and the developer are looking to put “a new fundable development lease” in place.
Urban & Civic and Lendlease have been approached for comment.
The existing hotel has been earmarked for redevelopment since 1999
