Salboy explores office to resi swap at £300m Viadux

The developer is revisiting its plans for phase two of the Manchester project, eyeing up a second residential tower rather than the approved 263,000 sq ft office, according to multiple market sources. 

A spokesperson for Salboy said the developer was looking at refining the £300m project, “one of the most complex schemes in the UK, if not Europe”.

It is understood that the 15-storey office element of Salboy’s Viadux scheme, located on the former Bauer Millet site off Albion Street, is to be replaced with another apartment building that could reach up to 60 storeys. 

Ditching the offices in favour of more homes would increase Manchester’s residential pipeline at a time of record low supply.

A report published recently by Urbanbubble stated that a lack of available homes in the city was creating upward pressure on rents.

Domis is currently on site delivering phase one of Viadux, a 40-storey tower comprising 375 apartments, while work is ongoing to finalise plans for phase two. 

“As we move through the different development phases, we are continually looking at and refining the plans to ensure the end result is best suited to the site, the city and the people who’ll live and work there in the future,” the Salboy spokesperson told Place North West. 

“We remain committed to delivering the whole site and as is our usual practice, we will share further updates as the scheme progresses.” 

Like the 374-apartment first phase, work on the second phase will involve punching through the grade two-listed arches of the railway viaduct.  

The second phase of Viadux will also see the Metrolink line that runs close to the site encased to protect it during and after construction. 

Plans for Viadux were approved in 2017 and construction began three years later. The scheme was originally being delivered in joint venture with Ask Developments.   

However, Salboy bought Ask out of the partnership last year.