The project would feature 56 apartments. Credit: via planning documents

Plans emerge for prominent Trafford tower  

Capital Builders is seeking permission to deliver a 21-storey residential building on the former Tommy’s House of Fires showroom on the corner of Talbot Road and Chester Road.

An application for the site’s redevelopment has been lodged with Trafford Council.

The scheme features 56 apartments across 20 floors, with the ground floor and the first floor earmarked for commercial space and residents’ facilities. 

There would be two one-bedroom apartments, 34 with two bedrooms, 18 three-bedroom duplexes and two four-bedroom properties.

The developer behind the tower, Capital Builders NW, was formed in February 2021 and lists Khalid Mahmood as its sole director.

The company is working with architect Tang & Associates on the scheme.

A viability appraisal states that the scheme would not be viable if it included an affordable housing provision.

To find out more about this application, search Trafford Council’s planning portal using reference number 107225/OUT/22.

 

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This is awful. Too high for this area – will look like one of Salford’s finest towers in 5 years time

By Prison

The site has been derelict for ages, and a high density development in walking distance to a tram stop is the perfect location. Get it built.

By S

Perfect development for the area, it’s a derelict site across the road from a tram stop. As long as it has balconies, get it built!

By MC

Perfect location right next to Trafford Bar Metrolink in a highly sustainable location where cars are not needed. It is defnitely tall for the area but West Point is across the street and isn’t much shorter. Plus the office-to-resi conversions in the area push the existing density up.

Get it built!

By Anonymous

Love how these low value land uses and getting developed.

By Rich X

Trafford needs to get all those car showrooms relocated which blight that area. The land where they currently are is ripe for residential and very central.

By Elephant

This is actually a good use of a currently pretty dead site.

By Anonymous

Good use of the site. Will hopefully regenerate the rest of the surrounding area. Such a huge demand for flats in Manchester at the moment and this area could do with the investment

By C

Where’s the resident parking?

By Dan

@Prison – oh please, this is exactly the kind of density we should be building in our cities and near to the transport network. I can imagine you also complain when mass 3 bed housing developments are built on Greenbelt land. Can’t have it both ways.

By Bob

The site is a mess currently and given its next to Trafford Bar metrolink stop, I’d be in favour of a tall building on the site.

By Dr B

No affordable housing should be an instant rejection and that site is barely big enough anyway. Having said that, build a zip wire between it and West Point and it’ll have my 100% support.

By Anthony

‘Yul save plenty’ Tommy’s House of Fires is still there? I used to work in Ashburner, then Portcullis and then Westpoint in the 80s and 90s. It was falling to bits then. Good for the tram, not sure about being stuck in the middle of Chester and Talbot Road though.

By Sbt65

Brilliant. Trafford Bar has a tram every 2 minutes or so into the city. The connections are there, so this should be a much more dense location with more homes and local services. So much opportunity. Schemes like this have the potential to accommodate thousands of new residents, saving the greenbelt from low density suburban housing!

By Maturing City

Love it, but practical question. How are the foundations going to avoid the metrolink tunnel which passes directly underneath?

My guess is that they have underestimated the engineering complexity due to the metrolink tunnel.

By Rob

Bloody awful, totally out of character for the area

By Des

Didn’t they demolish this type of structure across Salford years ago.

By Anon one

I am sorry but the comments below are a joke. ‘Get it built’ ?! Not the same commenter much. This building is far too tall for the area. It’s going to cut the sunlight off to residents that have been there over 40 years. The no vehicle access is only going to create traffic problems for that junction, and the amount of flats that are going up in that area is ridiculous, all of which house no parking. This excludes families & disabled users as it offers them no access, so who is this targeted for because it definitely not the Old Trafford Community?!

By Bev

You should never build on a site which was a house of fires. Bad JuJu man

By Kev

Get them to pay for the cyclops junctions!

By Pomoaner

Looks like a bad version of the SimCity game. How is that proposal within context??

By Anon

The design is awful. Do they do it on purpose or what? I agree with Anon they did indeed demolish these kind of structures years ago. And they’ll demolish this one in 10 years if it gets built.

By John

The immediate area is pretty awful and rundown, so new homes and activity will be a real boost for local businesses and provide much needed housing close to good transport links. Get it built!

By GetItBuilt

The Green Belt was invented to keep the price of land and property sky-high. Why else does the upper caste support it? You can’t fool me, tha knows. Build houses now!

By James Yates

As has been pointed out, currently low value land with little of worth on it. It is a smallish plot though so it makes sense to go upwards. Hope they maintain the quality so it attracts buyers as well as renters. with the transport links it has nearby it’s in the perfect location for the city, the quays and the tram to Altrincham.

By Nev

What about social housing for the poor of the area we are living like animals

By Anonymous

The site definitely needs development. Maybe a bit to high but would bring custom to nearby businesses. Please make it affordable for first time buyers.

By A cole

Dreadful looking scheme. This scheme should all be about the public realm and how the building engages with it’s immediate surroundings, the current scheme has just been dropped on the site. One look at the development team suggests a lack of ideas, cheap scheme, dead-end development waiting to happen. Please get someone of real imagination to breath life into this area/site.

By DM

Not going to effect the beautiful views of west point tower we have. Not going to effect sun light as sun comes up over Seymour Park and nothing behind this site but the bingo hall and car shops, sure they’ll manage with less light. Would ge nice to see something other than fast food take aways in the commercial bit. Down side it will yet again jack up rental prices as I’m sure it’ll be snapped up as buy to let. Affordable rents in the area are becoming a thing of the past. Woild be good if Traffird Council actually thought about how to address that. Plus anyone moving in had better be a BIG Man Utd fan with the pub being across the road! And WHO do Trafford get as architects? They ALWAYS mabage to make every new build look like a prison! (Oh yes, balconies please).

By Anon

Where’s the parking for residents who will all have to be well off (so more likely to have cars) as none of the flats are even affordable.

By Anon

It’s just too tall and being built to maximise profits without any thought about infrastructure and how it fits into the area. The old station building across the road has been empty for years, the local shops at the end of Seymour Grove are dilapidated and with too many fast food shops. The building should be half the height and aesthetically pleasing rather than just another ugly tower block. Trafford Council are a joke and do not care about this part of Trafford. Just look at the tower block nearly complete, being built in the car park of an existing former office block on Seymour Grove, which dominates and overlooks Seymour Park. How on earth did this ever get planning permission?! This part of Trafford needs more houses for families and not just block after block of over priced ugly looking apartments.

By Anonymous

It would be as well to ensure that the foundation of this tower does not confict in any way with the Railway Tunnel that passes under the corner of Tommy’s House of fires and beneath the road junction. Possible heavy loads of construction vehicles could conflict with tunnel loadings.

By Bill Sumner (local Stretford historian)

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