Trio vies for £250m Stockport 8 opportunity
English Cities Fund, Bruntwood with Glenbrook, and Drum Property Group with Grahams are the three parties in the running to be appointed as the development partner for the 1,200-home project, according to market sources.
Place North West understands the Stockport Council and the Mayoral Development Corporation will appoint a partner for the £250m regeneration scheme in the coming weeks.
The opportunity
Last year, Stockport Council announced it was seeking to form a 50:50 joint venture with a developer to progress the next phase of town centre regeneration.
Stockport 8 comprises eight acres and incorporates three sites in Stockport’s Station Quarter and Brinksway neighbourhoods; it also includes the Stagecoach depot off Daw Bank.
The proposed development could feature up to 1,200 new-build homes, as well as retail, office, and leisure space.
The scheme forms part of the 130-acre Town Centre West. Credit: via Coverdale Barclay
The runners and riders?
When Stockport Council launched the Stockport 8 opportunity last summer, it said it was looking for a partner that could “demonstrate long-term public-private partnership working approaches on major regeneration projects”.
English Cities Fund has a track record for delivering such projects across the country. The consortium, a joint venture between Muse, Homes England, and Legal & General, is perhaps best known for its work in Salford.
The development firm has delivered the mixed-use redevelopment of Salford Central and is working up plans for the first phase of the £2.5bn Salford Crescent masterplan.
Elsewhere, ECF was also appointed by St Helens Council to lead the redevelopment of its town centre.
The regeneration projects in Bruntwood’s in-tray include Stretford Mall in partnership with Trafford Council and Millgate with Bury Council.
Glenbrook is one of Bruntwood’s trusted partners and was appointed to deliver the residential element of Lumina Village, the redevelopment of land around the former Kellogg’s headquarters in Stretford.
The developers have teamed up again in a bid to win the Stockport 8 opportunity.
Bruntwood and Glenbrook are working in partnership in Trafford. Credit: via Inform Communications
Drum Property Group is a Scotland-headquartered development company that may be something of an unknown entity to the North West property market.
The company is currently delivering West Town, a 200-acre regeneration scheme in Edinburgh that could feature up to 7,000 homes.
Drum is progressing its Stockport bid in conjunction with Graham Investments, a subsidiary of the construction group.
Graham has worked with Drum previously on the £500m Buchanan Wharf in Glasgow.
Stockport’s boom
Stockport 8 is the next phase of the Mayoral Development Corporation’s £1bn regeneration strategy for the area known as Town Centre West.
As well as Stockport 8, the 130-acre district features the redevelopment of Stockport Interchange and Weir Mill.
In total, the MDC plans to deliver up to 4,000 new homes and 1m sq ft of new employment space over the next 15 years.
To date, Stockport MDC has developed more than £175m of development since 2019, including offices at Stockport Exchange, and the Mailbox, the town’s first build-to-rent scheme.
Here is your prize for walking out of GMSF – A Mayoral Development Corporation!
Hope all your residents like to live in apartments…..
By UnaPlanner
@ UnaPlanner. There’s no reason why apartments and the communities they’re in couldn’t be designed to meet the needs of a far wider range of people – older people and families included, as well as the more commonly met needs of young professionals. But Stockport were already relying on their town centre, including the MDC area, to deliver thousands of homes under GMSF. They might, fingers-crossed, now have worked out how to deliver even more in the most sustainably located part of the borough, but it won’t be anything like all the new homes they need to deliver.
By the light of the moon
By the light of the moon……..It just comes across as Stockport wanting all the benefits of being part of GM without taking any of the responsibility i.e. the need to accept some green belt release to provide for family housing.
By UnaPlanner
Are there still plans to house part of the Hospital on the Debenhams site?
By Anonymous
@ UnaPlanner. If (and it’s a big if) they meet their housing needs then what responsibility are they not taking? They’re yet to set out their own draft local plan that’ll say what they propose doing.
By the light of the moon