Renaker eyes 2020 completion for skyscraper cluster
CQ Investments, part of Renaker Build, has outlined its plans to develop four residential towers of between 38 and 64 storeys to the South of Manchester city centre, providing more than 1,400 flats.
According to plans put on show at a consultation event yesterday afternoon, the four towers on the site of the Owen Street car park in Castlefield are expected to reach at least 37, 44, 50, and 62 storeys each.
The apartments will be supported by a three-storey amenity building, which will include facilities for residents such as an indoor tennis court, swimming pool and spa, gymnasium, studios, cinema screen, rooftop café bar with terrace and private garden, entertaining and home office and business facilities.
There will also be 95,000 sq ft of public realm around the River Medlock, with the largest space equaling the size of Exchange Square in Manchester city centre. There will be three levels of basement parking with around 700 spaces.
The scheme was designed by SimpsonHaugh & Partners, and echoes a project that the studio designed for West Properties for the same site which was approved in 2008.
Renaker bought the site from Morgan Stanley last year, after it was put on the market in a sell-off of former West assets in Manchester city centre. Two other sites, Origin in Princess Street and Renaissance Hotel in Deansgate, were bought by Urban & Civic.
Morgan Stanley acquired a £216m portfolio of loans against West assets in 2011 from the National Asset Management Agency. NAMA took over the debt during the Irish banking crisis.
The scheme adheres to the principles of Manchester City Council’s adopted development framework for the Great Jackson Street area which was approved in 2007, with the Owen Street plot earmarked as appropriate for high-rise buildings.
A planning application is due to be submitted in February. If planning permission is granted, CQ Investments said that it intends to start construction in the third quarter of 2016 with a build period for the entire scheme anticipated to span four-and-a-half years, with the entire scheme operational in 2020.
A spokesperson for CQ Investments said: “Our proposals provide a fantastic opportunity to develop a series of landmark buildings set within a high quality public space creating a new community and attractive destination in the city centre.
“The arrangement, range and specification of accommodation planned combined with the amenity and service provision will deliver highly desirable and important new homes to Manchester.”
The planning application by CQ Investments is being co-ordinated by Deloitte Real Estate.
Amazing, Excited to see these rise.
By Prestatyn
No balconies?
By Build to live
Very exciting but what will the Council do about the traffic congestion?? New apartments are very likely to bring new cars to the city centre
By MK
If there is an architect in the world that produces designs that are more dull than Simpson, I’d be gobsmacked. The scale is impressive and deserves a more thoughtful, innovative and interesting design solution.
By MW
Yep, look alright. Note: base-jumpers delight.
By Ojoo Knowtiss
Don’t need balconies when all there is to look at is other towers
By Uni
MCC have got a grand plan to ease congestion – close more roads.
This way driving becomes impossible and we all use public transport.
By Concerned citizen
Give its proximity to Deansgate train and tram stops, a lot of people won’t have a car. The city centre is accessible on foot anyway. Those that do and driving during the morning/evening would be going against the flow of traffic (i.e. travelling away from the city centre in the morning, and towards it in the evening).
Don’t think traffic is the issue here… the boxy design and height are bigger concerns.
By sba
Large glass tower designed by Simpson shock
By Ian Bart Simpson
Anyone with any intention of living there for a long period of time will need private outdoor space. Otherwise theses are just more buy-to-let boxes for transient communities.
By Build to live
I’m glad to hear they are having some open space to a reasonable size.Hopefully they can landscape it,or does everywhere in Manchester have to look like a hard shoulder? There will be a lot of towers around this area soon.With River street and Axis,which both appear to have been around longer than God.Is Axis ever going to he built and there will be the new one on Whitworth street too.Should look very Manhattanesque by 2020.Is Manchester going to be famous for skyscrapers in ten years?
By Elephant
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the above is just a pretty drawing. For 40 storey towers schemes to be viable, you need capital values to be north of £600 psf. There are not many (if any) 64 storey schemes in London, so how on earth can they be built in Manchester. Back to the drawing board on this. You could make a 20 storey tower scheme stack up, and that is what will probably happen (unless the market takes a nose dive then the site will lay fallow for years to come!). Shame as the site could create a great district for the city centre and really needs redeveloping.
By Realist Surveyor
Surveyor – are you not basing that calculation on London land values though? Surely the viability figure is lower up north?
By Queryer
Highly amused by the “if planning permission is granted” Of course it will be, though whether it gets built is another matter entirely.
By Gene Walker
Surveyor does have a point.Does anyone remember Crown,Piccadilly and the Spinningfields skyscrapers.Two of those sites now have a nineteen storey glass box on and the other a three storey chain hotel.The other site at Piccadilly station,remains a car park.There is a tendency to do this on PNW to get all excited about these buildings which never get built.Look at Axis,that is still hardly started.
By Elephant
This will be built, don’t worry about that.
By Retep
Renaker deliver. They finished the 17 storey apartments at Alto on Trinity Way within no time. From vacant sites around 12-18 months ago, they are half way through the 31 storey One Greengate, the 28 floor One Regent Road, the 21 storey Wilburn Street basin and the 29 floor Cambridge Street. Although they are of mediocre build quality, Renaker’s developments are delivering 1000 apartments that inner Manchester-Salford needs. If anyone will deliver a bold vision quickly, it will be them.
By Manchester Development Observer
How are Renaker funded? They may not have the same profit expectations as a traditional developer.
By Sir F Goodwin
The only people who get excited then disappointed about proposals that fail to materialise are amateurs who have no knowledge of how the development industry works.
A planning permission is no guarantee that anything will happen. After that it needs designing, funding and delivering which involves many different professions, lots of money, expertise and plenty of experience. And it needs to be profitable.
If you’re a speculator or lacking the above attributes (arguably the promoter of the Crown Tower scheme fit this profile) your chances of pulling off such a large and complex scheme are extremely slim.
By PNW reader
Tower Crane going up on site today for the 44 storey tower.
By .