Trio works up £200m Upper Brook Street revamp

Commercial or education space totalling 1m sq ft and a 300,000 sq ft student accommodation scheme feature in the Manchester masterplan being readied by investors Brookfield, Logik Developments and McLaren Property. 

Site assembly for the £200m masterplan began with Logik’s acquisition of the former Citroen garage opposite the University of Manchester’s Henry Royce Institute on Upper Brook Street, which runs parallel to Oxford Road. 

Alongside its joint venture partners, Logik, headed up by former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff, is in talks to acquire “adjoining sites in the area to bring forward the masterplan vision”. 

The proposed student accommodation scheme would be operated by Student Roost, a subsidiary of Brookfield. The JV aims to complete the project between 2023 and 2025. 

The area is subject to an existing Manchester City Council regeneration framework comprising land around Upper Brook Street, the former Elizabeth Gaskell Campus, Willmott Street and Birchall Way. 

The framework establishes a vision to bring forward the 11-acre Upper Brook Street zone as an “employment-led destination” over the next 10 to 15 years. 

The Tai Pan supermarket and Mawson pub on Upper Brook Street are owned by McLaren, according to the framework drawn up by Deloitte. 

Another site that could fall within the masterplan is the former BMW garage and showroom opposite Manchester University’s £400m engineering campus, the MECD. The dealership relocated to Trafford City in September 2019 and Manchester City Council owns the freehold to the Upper Brook Street site. 

Elsewhere in Manchester, Logik is behind a 12-storey block containing 215,000 sq ft of offices and a 170,000 sq ft hotel on Baring Street in, part of the Mayfield masterplan.