Renaker tables £741m Trinity Islands proposal
Designed by SimpsonHaugh, the project comprises almost 2,000 homes across four towers ranging from 39 to 60 storeys.
Having consulted on the long-awaited scheme earlier this year, prolific skyscraper developer Renaker has now lodged an application for Trinity Islands with Manchester City Council.
The development is divided into two 2.2-acre plots, located on either side of Trinity Way on the Manchester side of the River Irwell.
Plot C
Plot C will be developed first. Credit: via planning documents
Located to the east of Trinity Way, Plot C would hold two diamond-form towers, each with a crystalline façade. These towers reaching would be delivered first.
- Building C1 – 414 apartments across 39 storeys
- Building C2 – 521 apartments across 48 storeys
Plot D
Plot D will feature the 60-storey tower. Credit: via planning documents
The western site is earmarked for another pair of towers, which would have curved façades.
- Building D1 – 532 apartments across 60 storeys
- Building D2 – 483 apartments across 55 storeys
In total, Trinity Islands would deliver 1,950 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.
Apartment mix
- One-bed – 638
- Two-bed – 1,254
- Three-bed – 42
- Three-bed duplex apartments – 16
Around 10,000 sq ft of ground floor amenity is proposed across the development, as well as 3.2 acres of open space and public realm.
According to a viability appraisal submitted with the planning application, Trinity Islands has a gross development value of £741m and will cost £535m to build, representing a 12% profit.
Renaker bought the site from Allied London in 2017 for £13.4m. Allied won approval for a project at Trinity Islands I 2018 that featured three residential towers including one reaching 67 storeys, which would have made it the tallest tower in Manchester.
TPM is the landscape architect. Credit: via planning documents
The project team for Renaker’s Trinity Islands project includes:
- Deloitte – planning
- SimpsonHaugh – architecture
- Ensafe – air quality
- TPM -landscape architect
- WSP – climate change and wind microclimate
- GIA – daylight, sunlight and overshadowing and solar glare
- Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture – heritage
- Matt Fisher – noise and vibration
- Ekosgen – socio-economic issues
- Chris Burnett Associates – townscape and visual impact
- Vectos – traffic and transport
- Curtins Consulting – water resources
Trinity Islands is Renaker’s latest skyscraper cluster.
The developer has delivered four towers at Deansgate Square, including the 65-storey South Tower, the tallest building outside London.
Deansgate Square is part of the Great Jackson Street framework which also features Crown Street phase one – the completed Victoria Residence and the almost completed Elizabeth Tower – and Crown Street phase two – Blade and Three60, a pair of 52-storey skyscrapers.
Renaker also recently submitted an application for another two 51-storey skyscrapers within the Jackson Street masterplan area.
In Salford, Renaker is on site delivering the 50-storey Colliers Yard at Greengate. Two more towers feature in future phases on the Salford residential cluster.
Disappointing it’s Simpson Haugh yet again! Still prefer the original design a few years back. Much more interesting.
By Steve
Renaker schemes really do have the worst relationship to the street. There’s no mid rise scale, they just plummet into the ground. They should build out a podium like Greengate to create more of a sense of place
By Denizen
Wow! Can’t wait for this to be built
By Verticality
Looking forward seeing this happen, agree with some of the comments here though, a bit of heat and soul from urbansplash or capital¢ric etc would make it amazing
By Greg Cohen
Fantastic, will be some sight when these start rising. And finally I’ll have something interesting to look at whilst sitting in traffic at this junction…
By Alex
@Denizen the area is on the peripheral of the city centre, location-wise and commercially it would not make sense to make this area a place for non-residents to go as it is located in between two major roads including the city centre ring road and is only 5 minutes walk from Deansgate. I think by now Renaker know what they are doing, hats off to them they’ve changed the skyline of Manchester for the better and they actually get things built unlike certain developers living in fantasy land.
By New Wave
It’s a nice development, but the original plan with two triangular skyscrapers and a sky bridge was so much cooler! That would have been an iconic Manchester skyscraper, would be good to construct something that would become a real landmark recognised around the world, not just Manchester, the city needs a few of them!
By Matt
Recipe for success in MCC = Simpson Haugh Architects Deloitte planning. It is what it is. Haters gonna hate but I’m actually a huge fan of what Renaker are doing. Bring on the New York style skyline in the North. Glass towers all the way baby.
By Cheshire boy
Agree that the site is currently a mess and not somewhere anyone wants to visit, but isn’t that the point of redevelopment? Instead of locking this in as somewhere non-residents wouldn’t want to visit, why not integrate it with the urban grain, lay out new streets, create a waterfront promenade, add some placemaking and create a destination? Instead of just plonking more blocks here and there on random sites throughout the city.
I respect Renaker for everything they’ve done but I can’t get excited about stuff like this anymore. Hopefully CAPITAL&CENTRIC, Mulbury, Tim Groom, Ollier Smurthwaite, FEC etc continue to roll out new neighbourhoods with ambition, as well as proper planning and place-making. Renaker & SimpsonHaugh are just piggy-backing on the success of the rest of the city, without actually doing anything to build on that success.
By Anonymous
These are fine but Manchester needs something like the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.
By Elephant
Excellent !! Another scheme without balconies 🙂
By WindyMcWindface
it looks like a copy of deansgate square…why? is there seriously no other architects out there?
By Michael
1970s towers in the park style developments, like this and Deansgate Square will not expand the urban core of the city. Tall towers are great. Just build a ground floor relationship with something human scale. SimpsonHaugh are sterilising the city at its edges, instead of creating true streetscapes which will attract people. Contrast the windswept public realm at Deansgate Square to the strong podiums at Angel Gardens, along Great Ancoats Street or at Greengate. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bridge over towards Regent Road wasted.
By Podium
Is there a link where I can see the originally proposed triangle skyscrapers as some have commented? Would be really interested too see!
By Bill Sutton
I think Renaker is on a roll, they will probably sell it some pension fund once built. Until it runs into problems they will change the identikit skyscraper developments.
By Meeseeks
Have to admire the ambition and the track record, but you wonder whether sustainability and place making catch up with this model, and they will be very much from a place and time in the city’s history.
By Rich X
We’ll I actually quite like the design, at least they have changed the profile and shape like they have with the coming Blade and cylinder . Would have liked 70 stories plus though. 50-60 is so yesterday in Manchester now.
By Anonymous
While it might not be the landmark we were hoping for, I see this as a real catalyst for future developments. There has to be demand for an iconic structure and these towers along with the blade and three60 represent a shift from the rectangles we’re accustomed to. I’m sure we will see a major landmark tower within the next 10 years, but we need a moderately busy skyline before that becomes viable.
By Motley
I don’t think they’re great but the comment re heart and soul in the context of Capital & Centric and Urban Splash is really wide of the mark. You’d be waiting a long time for those two to be as ballsy as this putting their own hands in their pockets, they’d be waiting for the public sector to fund it for them.
By Oscar
is the cladding fire proof accredited?
By vicki whelan
People here tend to comment on how pretty or ugly a scheme is. Over the last 10 years Renaker is probably the only developer who get stuff build on time and get occupied.
By Another Manc
Overall I’m happy to see the skyline developing, I think we’re pretty lucky to have the city centre progress as it is.
Would be nice to see some colour introduced into these towers, especially on plot C. The horizontal black lines could be changed to another colour maybe. Would also be brilliant to see a different shaped roof instead of flat ones. Ive never understood the concept of a huge flat roof in our climate.
By MrP
More skyscraper’s in Manchester. This high rise appartment development looks good. The future of living for some citizens is high rise living.
By Darren Born Bred.
Do Simpson Haugh just have a giant ‘copy and paste’ button when it comes to tall buildings? Seriously…have a design review and get some ‘other’ ideas…getting boring now! Other than this, great to see development like this, but a bit of variety would be nice…maybe change the architect.
By A.
ANOTHER copy and paste job from Renaker! Venture out a little…
By Unknown
Come on Renaker…you’ve got to be better than this…..any future developments need to take on London for architectural merit….not boxes in the sky …come on !
By Rod Cleary
Oh Hardly copy and paste …different shapes completely. And a lot more to come. This is where things happen. Venture in a little actually have a look around.
By Anonymous
Yet another masterpiece from the infernal duo Simpson/Haugh.
By john
We’ll I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece but impressive non the less.
By JohnP
When will we stop one architect to dictate the Manchester skyline. We need diverse range of architects all competing in a equal footing
By Mr White
I’m in two minds about these.
We do need more variation and a few signature builds to give it character/identity. I mean the city already has some of the finest examples of industrial, neo-gothic and Victorian architecture in the world. It would be a bit of an insult to not start attempting to pay homage to this.
BUT given there will be quite a few skyscrapers being built, having a uniform design with more unique and dramatic variations might be much better in the long run. I guess you can’t build these type of things instantly either.
Only time will tell I guess.
By Anonymous
Yet more antwhere architecture, where’s the Manchester style? Red Brick, Chimneys etc
By PDM
Some people just don’t like anything.
By Anonymous
Chimneys?…who uses chimneys these days, they don’t even put them in houses! The world moves on and Manchester is leading the move. It’s good to preserve your classic architecture but not at the expense of the levels of redevelopment we’ve seen here over the last 20 plus years otherwise you just become another sleepy backwater with no jobs , no growth and precious little development.
By Anonymous
This is great to see and I hope it doesn’t stop there in this area, where a further 4/5 towers could easily be built.
The units on New Elm Road could easily be knocked down, with 2 towers built in their place, granted the Soccer in the City would have to relocate elsewhere.
Furthermore, there is an empty plot next to the Big Yellow Self Storage centre, primed and ready for a tower to be built on.
Perhaps somewhat more optimistic, but no where near impossible is knocking down the current Campanile Hotel and replacing it with a big tower, possibly retaining the hotel at the bottom and flats at the top (similar to the Beetham Tower with the Hilton), and also relocating the Porcelanosa up the road to one of the empty units on the Regent Retail Park and building a tower in that space.
Lets go big in this area!
By Wilburner