Third time is lucky for £154m Port Street tower
Having reduced the height of the development by a single storey, Affinty Living has been given the go-ahead for the 481-home project by Manchester City Council.
The developer’s 33-storey Port Street tower had twice been refused by the city council’s planning committee but prevailed this afternoon by seven votes to three.
The developer, part of Select Property Group, reduced the height of the £154m development from 34 storeys in a bid to win planning consent. The loss of one storey brings the scheme in line with the strategic regeneration framework for the area.
Designed by SimpsonHaugh Architects, the development also features an 11-storey block. The shorter element fronts Great Ancoats Street, while the tower portion faces Port Street.
Deloitte Real Estate is the planning consultant for the project, and Re:form is the landscape architect.
“Select Property has developed an outstanding reputation for delivering some of the city’s best build-to-rent accommodation such as Embankment West home to Laurence Place and Exchange Point,” said Adam Price, chief executive of Select Property.
“Now, work can begin on Port Street, a site that was long overdue for significant investment and promises to deliver the very best apartments the city has to offer, creating a vibrant community. The plans will marry this desirable location with a superb product that responds to its surroundings, bringing together Piccadilly, Ancoats and the Northern Quarter.”
At the same meeting, Dandara’s plans for a build-to-rent development in Didsbury were refused in line with officers’ recommendations.
The 75-home Blackbird Yard, designed by Hodder + Partners, attracted the ire of the city’s planners due to a lack of car parking.
Hodder + Partners is the architect for Blackbird Yard. Credit: via planning documents
Another surface car park bites the dust. With high density living bringing in more people paying council tax, filling job vacancies, spending their money in bars and restaurants and helping the city to evolve further. Excellent to see. Now please can they start to sort out the streets and public realm in this area.
By Bob
Well that’s all my plants dead. 🙁
By Anonymous
Let’s hope they plant many trees around the new tower 🌳🌳🌳🙏🙏🙏
By FrankinManc
Another unimaginative project, thoughtless and senseless.
By MacDopel
Well that’s all my plants dead. 🙁
July 28, 2022 at 4:15 pm
By Anonymous
Have you checked the plans the shadow cast is around 30mins as the sun rises
By Anonymous
There are a continuous of 20/30 story buildings just being approved. It makes the skyline utterly boring. We need newer developments with taller buildings !!
By Anonymous
It’s such a fat plan the tower really ought to be taller. Slenderness ratio an all that. This should easily be 50 storeys. At 33 it just looks dumpy.
By Chucky
I think Bob summarizes this beautifully.
By M4 Resident.
They should have held off for a more imaginative design. This is such a brilliant area and doesn’t ‘need’ a filler like other areas to spark regeneration.
By Anonymous
We need more scrapers if we are to even resemble NY
By Eccles
Yet more dreary, faceless rubbish
By Jack
Sadly this is representative of the poor standard of architecture being approved in Manchester. We will regret this in years to come.
By 1981
There’s 2 main problems with this thread:
1. People consider a 33-storey building (~100m) a ‘tower’. It is merely a stumpy development. Godzilla was ~120m for comparison.
2. Folk want to cling onto Manchester’s industrial heritage with the architecture of these new developments, whilst expecting more imaginative designs…there is only so much you can do. I for one think we should ignore the heritage and build as much glass and steel skyscrapers as possible, especially within the City, just like London. Who ever moans about the unimaginative architecture there?
By Verticality
There was no heritage, the nice old mills and Victorian canals are nearby and are being kept and cherished. This was just another piece of wasteland ripe for redevelopment. You don’t have to look very far to see cities that can’t attract development, they don’t attract jobs either and it becomes a vicious circle with decades of neglect.
By Anonymous
Yes agree with verticality on this one. So it’s not a 50/60 story? So what .we’ve got enough of those with a load more being built. This is very welcome addition to a presently dead corner. Other cities would call this a skyscraper.
By Anonymous