Developer unveils plan for record-breaking 76-storey tower in Manchester

The architect behind the five tallest buildings in Manchester has unveiled plans to break another record in the city with proposals for an even higher tower.

Simpson Haugh, the practice behind the Deansgate Square development and the Beetham tower, has opened a consultation on a 76-storey residential scheme for local developer Salboy.

Comprising the second phase of the city centre Viadux development next to the grade II-listed Castlefield viaduct, the scheme has been significantly revised from former plans for an office block of just 15 storeys.

The new proposals will contain 780 homes in the tower and a further 120 affordable homes in an adjacent 23-storey block.

A planning application will be submitted for the scheme in the coming weeks with Salboy hoping to be on site next year.

The two blocks will add to what has become an entire district of Simpson Haugh-designed towers in the south side of Manchester’s city centre which started with Carillion’s completion of the 47-storey Beetham tower in 2006.

This scheme held the title of the city’s tallest building for 12 years before developer Renaker’s 64-storey South Tower, part of the Deansgate Square development, snatched the crown in 2018.

Renaker submitted a planning application for an even taller 71-storey scheme in July this year, also designed by Simpson Haugh, which had been set to be the city’s tallest tower and the UK’s tallest outside of London before Salboy’s revision of the Viadux scheme.

The latter development comes as local contractor Domis nears completion of the first phase of Viadux, a 40-storey tower containing 385 homes and a 25-storey, 177-home block developed in partnership with Forshaw Group. Both sites are expected to compete in the second quarter of next year.