Renaker secures £123m funding for 52-storey Crown Street

Maslow Capital has backed Renaker’s 664-home, two-tower Crown Street project in Manchester city centre with a £123m development loan.

Featuring two towers of 52 and 21 storeys, Crown Street is already progressing at pace, with concrete cores and cladding under way.

The larger building, named Elizabeth Tower, includes 484 apartments; facilities available to residents will include a gym, rooftop gardens, a pool on the 44th floor, and 24-hour concierge. SimpsonHaugh is the architect, while Renaker is also acting as contractor under its builder-developer model.

Overall, the Crown Street scheme has a gross development value of more than £230m. The completion of the £123m loan to Renaker marks Maslow Capital’s eleventh facility in Manchester.

Crown Street sits within Manchester’s Great Jackson Street framework area, which is effectively earmarked for tall residential development, also including Renaker’s Deansgate Square scheme.

Previous schemes developed by Renaker have been supported by the Greater Manchester Housing Loan Fund among others; Renaker also sold one of the towers at Deansgate to L&G last year, as revealed by Place North West.

Maslow Capital partner and deal originator Matt Pigram said: “Despite a large increase in supply over the past few years, our market research shows an ongoing shortfall of supply of residential dwellings in the Manchester region. As a lender we are delighted to see a residential development of this scale under construction by a proven developer that is fully committed to meeting the housing demand in the city.”

Maslow Capital chief executive and co-founder, Ellis Sher added: “We are delighted to be supporting the delivery of a scheme of such scale and quality by such an accomplished and experienced developer.

“Despite the political and economic uncertainty, all the parties involved have done what they said they would do and remain focused on the delivery of this important project. It’s easy to lose sight of the housing shortages that many parts of the country face with all the Brexit noise around us. It’s important to Maslow that we support high quality developers throughout the cycle, ignoring some of the near-term volatility and focus on the long-term fundamentals.”

The team on the deal also included Knight Frank.