Peel kicks off £26m Lowry Outlet overhaul
Contractor Artez has started work to transform part of the shopping centre at Salford Quays into a waterfront leisure and dining offering in a £26m project for Peel L&P.
Featuring 35,000 sq ft of F&B fronting the quays, the scheme is being delivered for Peel’s Lifestyle Outlets arm, and also includes new public realm to connect the existing Millennium Bridge to the mall. The public realm will consist of a raised walkway that link through to the Millennium Bridge with each of the restaurants situated along this elevation having open frontages.
There will also be a re-clad of some of the exterior in a similar style to the nearby Alchemist building, while the existing entrance to the Vue Cinema will be fully overhauled with improved public realm.
Named The Watergardens, the development is set to complete in 2020, and although no tenants have been signed up as yet, Peel said talks were “currently under way with a number of high-profile restaurants and bar operators”.
The scheme secured planning permission in February this year.
Chapman Taylor is the architect, while the professional team features planner WYG; principal designer Safersphere; retail consultant JLL; cost manager Deacon + Jones; consultant BECG; landscape architect Gillespies; and M&E consultant RPS.
Jason Pullen, managing director at Lifestyle Outlets, said: “Salford Quays has undergone quite a transformation in the last decade, with widespread investment in infrastructure, businesses and homes. It’s easy to see why the area has become so popular to live and work in recent years – as well as being a hub for Manchester’s creative industries, its cultural heritage has been sympathetically restored, creating a sense of place.
“The Watergardens has been designed to reflect the area’s history as well as its contemporary inhabitants, offering a vibrant dining offering with the best waterfront views in the area, as well as a host of quality retail and leisure spaces.
“We’re pleased to have broken ground on ‘The Watergardens’ and look forward to delivering a quality development that will reinvigorate the waterfront at MediaCityUK.”
Peel previously aired plans to spend £13m on upgrading the mall and installing a waterside restaurant terrace in September 2016, but these never progressed. Peel acquired the Lowry Outlet from Emerson for £70m in August 2012.
Since buying the centre, Peel has reconfigured parts of the 300,000 sq ft building, with Marks & Spencer relocating two years ago to free up waterfront-facing retail units. The developer also spent around £3.5m on new shop fronts.
