Peel ‘very confident’ Therme will open in 2028 ‘if not quicker’

Place attended the extravagant groundbreaking ceremony of the £450m flagship wellbeing centre, where Peel Waters director James Whittaker shared his expectations for the delivery of the long-awaited mega spa.

After the Eccles cakes, bright-orange spades, photo-op, and bagpipes, Place spoke to the team’s leaders to learn more about how the project will affect Trafford and the issues of traffic and tickets.

Getting to groundbreaking

It has taken the Therme project more than seven years to reach the groundbreaking milestone.

First conceived in 2019, planning approval was granted in March 2020, days before the pandemic, leaving the project inevitably delayed.

Since then, the post-COVID years of inflation have driven the project’s cost up by 80% from £250m to £450m. Several redesigns to tweak sustainability features have also been made.

Therme is due to be complete and open in 2028. When asked by Place if this target would be hit, James Whittaker, director of Peel Waters, was more ambitious.

“I’m very confident, actually. I’m hoping it’ll be quicker.

“I think it’s more of a 30-month type of scenario – but on a scheme so special, unique like this, you’re always going to get your hurdles.”

He added: “Imagine the procurement you’ve got to do, getting everything arriving at the same time.

“You’ve got to get your plants in, you’ve got to do all your groundwork, all your steel, the glass. That’s got to be coordinated and organised in a way which is not like building an office block, which is very simple.”

Sir Robert McAlpine has been appointed for the job, which will require more than 10 pools and 20 waterslides to be built, as well as a statement curved glass dome over the almost 7m sq ft footprint.

Angus McApline, partner at Sir Robert McAlpine, said the project was a “bold statement of intent” that perfectly reflects the builder’s vision to work closely with communities to “construct a better world” for future generations.

Therme will have a central enclosed garden. Credit: PNW

Congestion concerns

Worries of unsustainable traffic around Trafford Park and Therme’s proximity to the often-overburdened M60 have been prevalent throughout the project’s development.

Therme’s location off Barton Dock Road is directly opposite the Trafford Centre and its car park, while being minutes away from Manchester’s ring road.

Therme will mitigate this by opening each day at 10am and closing between 11pm and midnight.

They add that this will reduce pressure on peak-time traffic and allow customers flexibility over visitor time.

The scheme is well-served by the Bee Network with direct access to the Metrolink and buses, according to the company.

Wheeling and walking routes are also set to be a key part of visitor access to the wellness facility.

Sarah Tood, chief executive of Trafford Council, said: “[Therme] has to be connected. It has to feel like it’s part of Trafford.

“The work that is going to be done is about greening the area around it, and crucially, improving connectivity to the Bridgewater Canal that provides active travel, so you can walk your way into Manchester or out into Trafford.”

How much will it cost?

The £450m Therme has made creating and nurturing community a central theme to its offer, and Professor David Russell, Therme’s chief executive, told Place he wanted a price structure to reflect this.

A peak-season full-day adult ticket could cost £65. A standard off-peak family ticket is to be set around the £150 mark.

“People say it’s worth a lot more – we know it is worth more, but we’d rather have 2m people saying it’s good value, than have 1m people paying a price that’s exorbitant”, he said.

Pricing is tiered between adults, juniors, under-16s, seniors, and a flexible concession rate. There will be off-peak and peak times as well as on and off-season rates.

Price also varies depending on the length of stay. Times will be flexible, but standard offers range from three-, four-, and eight-hour sessions.

Russell added: “It’s wellbeing for all, and it’s driven by ensuring that it’s bringing wellbeing to the urban environment in a way it has never been done before.”

The over-the-top celebrations are a sign of the scheme to come. Credit: PNW

Nearby development potential

A Holiday Inn sits next to the flattened 28-acre Therme site, but two luxury hotel brands have been lined up for the surrounding plots.

The unnamed hoteliers will bring 400 beds to the area directly adjacent to Therme.

Whittaker said: “I think we will need another 1,000 beds, at least, in Trafford City to support what Therme are doing.

“With a new ice arena, a multisport arena, more leisure, the padel tennis – it’s going to need more quality bedrooms.”

Therme is expected to bring 2m visitors a year to its Trafford Park site, and is expecting a third, or 650,000 of them to be tourists staying in the city for extended periods.

Manchester currently hosts 1.7m tourists every year.

Whittaker added: “The economic impact of that on hotels, spending, retail, and restaurants is going to be huge.

“That’s where the biggest impact of Therme will be felt.”

Therme’s in-house architecture firm Therme Arc designed the mega spa. WSP, BWB, Ensight Solutions, Toren, Buro Happold, Reform, TTHC, RWDI, and EuroFins all contributed to the project.

To see the application, use the planning reference 114046/VAR/24 on Trafford Council’s planning portal.