Mayor Paul Dennett had called for a redesign of the Ralli Quays plan. Credit: via planning documents

LGIM tables Ralli Quays plans 

Part of the Salford Central masterplan, the riverside site is to be redeveloped into a 212,000 sq ft office and a 280-bedroom hotel once the existing buildings have been demolished. 

The Ralli Quays proposals are led by Legal & General’s investment management arm, LGIM and have been submitted to Salford City Council. 

Designed by EPR Architects, the scheme will see the one-acre site cleared, paving the way for the construction of a 16-storey hotel and a 12-floor office building. 

As it stands, Ralli Quays comprises 80,000 sq ft of office space and is occupied by HM Revenue & Customs.  It was built in the early 1990s and is located opposite side of the River Irwell from Spinningfields.  

The site falls within the New Bailey district of Salford which English Cities Fund, a joint venture between Legal & General, Homes England and Muse Developments, is redeveloping into an office-led mixed-use scheme.  

HMRC is to vacate Ralli Quays when its staff move to the 157,000 sq ft Three New Bailey, which is being fitted out by Bam Construction. 

Subject to planning approval, it is anticipated that the demolition of Ralli Quays will begin towards the end of 2022, once HMRC has moved out. 

Colliers is the agent for Ralli Quays. The project team also comprises Turner & Townsend as project manager, DPP Planning Services as planning consultant, Walker Sime as quantity surveyor and Hannan Associates as services and acoustic consultant.  

Clancy Consulting is structural engineer, WSP is advising on transport and Hyland Edgar Driver is the landscape architect.  

Kayleigh Dixon, associate director at DPP Planning, said: “Ralli Quays will be a significant addition to Salford Central, complementing the surrounding developments and bringing a new hotel and office concept to the market.  It also demonstrates Legal & General Investment Management’s long-term commitment to regenerate this area.” 

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And what of the derelict pub?

By Mark Addy

Better than what’s currently there

By Meeseeks

I like the lighter building on the right of these photos but the dark one is a very generic design on a more prominent location. Shame the dark building isn’t more aligned to the style of the light building.

By Robert

Good news. That current building is horrible

By Steve

One of the most notable design flaws in the current Ralli Quays building is the terrible waterfrontage public walkway. It’s both poorly designed and poorly maintained. It’s overgrown with weeds and smells of urine. We know our council is terrible for maintaining public spaces, so let’s hope the new building both opens up a walkway to the public, designs it better and actually maintains it. The renders here show what could be a split level walkway… but it looks dark, narrow and possibly no better than what is currently there now. Hopefully this improves over time

By Jo

@Mark Addy….owned by Castlefield Estates (The Ramsbottom’s). It needs to be demolished as it’s far from saving

By Steve

Looks fantastic!

By MB

A riverside public pathway would be good. Access to lakes and rivers for ‘the little people’ has been written into German law for ages. In the UK, if you want to leave your house, if you can afford one, you can only walk on ‘public footpaths’, if there are any. Otherwise, everything is “No entry. Private property.” You don’t believe me? Go for a walk, and see if you can leave the ‘public footpath’. You see, you never noticed; until I just told you. Private Place rules.

By James Yates

Manchester has always been hopeless at two things, parks and utilising rivers. This is pretty good. I like those arch like additions underneath. The river should be an asset not an embarrassment.

By Elephant

Elephant, Manchester’s rivers in the city centre aren’t these joyous frothing and gurgling azure delights just waiting to be broken out from their culverted prisons to complement some snazzy development. The rivers and canals network in and around the city are connected (and disconnected) by locks, sluices, weirs, overflows, outfalls and are generally neglected along their whole length apart from absolute basic maintenance (and often not even that). This results in the generally stagnant streamflow most of the year apart from when heavy rain runoff kicks them into full flow.

Utilising rivers in city centres to the extent that most people would like costs a small fortune and needs serious engineering remodelling (civils, ecological, hydrological, biological) across far more than the 150m stretch outside some new office. These waterways have been neglected for 100 years, and were never this amazing network of rivers in the first place. Thinking you can make once small stretch super, and leaving the other 16 miles of it as a filthy swamp is naive, mate.

By neil williams

This is on the Salford side of the river not Manchester.

By Anonymous

@neil williams, I agree with what you are saying except for one thing – the negative assumption that it can’t be done. You say it costs a small fortune, yet pretty much every other city in the developed world does it better than Manchester. We have the worst water-frontage of any place I have visited. Yes, it does cost money, but most cities spend this money over many decades and because they spent it in the past, it’s then affordable to maintain. To say we can’t do it because it costs too much is a moot point since nearly every other city has found the funds and it’s not like we’re poor – the 2nd city in the 5th richest country on the planet… The problem is just that we don’t do it, while other cities do

By Jo

The New Bailey district of Salford is now the “up and coming area” in Salford.

By Darren born bred.

@Jo, I think Manchester has a lot of barriers to river enhancement, money just being one of them, but it’s a significant one because the way Manchester has boxed in its watercourses over 100 years is generally more aggressive than other cities, domestic and international. Another barrier is Manchester’s rivers are not really ready-made to be sprung into a new lease of life even when opened up, they don’t work amazing well with the built environment in terms of levels and locations. I think Manchester has better potential options than it’s watercourses that it should focus on, new parks for example.

By neil williams

Manchester may have a plethora of office developments now but I like New Bailey in particular.it will be a lively part of town when reality returns and we can actually get back to the office. I’ve got another five weeks but I’m actually looking forward to it.

By Anonymous

I strongly oppose any closure of the public right of way in any form including only for short periods although I have no specific objection to new buildings the public rights of way must be held paramount.

By Septimus Turner

Looks good, but this will remove the public right of way alongside the edge of the river

By Anonymous

I am a founder member of the Salford friendly anglers and a keen advocate of access along the lrwell for walking, Cycling and fishing. We used to fish below the Mark Addy pub and opposite what was Granada Studios and catching plenty of fish. I was down below the Mark Addy last weekend and it’s a horrible place, looking at the pictures above it’s not clear to me whether there will be a public right of way along the water front ?
We should make every effort to keep a continuous foot path all the way through Manchester and down to the Salford Keys.
Regards Derek

By Derek kenyon

Objection to no access for fishing. Salford anglers have the fishing rites on the irwell for 200 years you have no right to stop this

By A levey

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