Manchester council approves bumper crop of major schemes

Manchester council has approved a bumper crop of major city centre schemes which will together provide more than 800 homes, 1,800 student rooms and 740,000 sq ft of office space.

The council's planning committee met yesterday evening to make decisions on 10 planning applications, approving all of them in under three hours.

They include a 45-storey residential tower, a 38-storey student accommodation tower, a 20-storey hotel, a 19-storey office building, a 14-storey student block and a pair of 10 and 11-storey apartment blocks, along with a primary school and a Lidl store.

The largest scheme, Oval Real Estate's 45-storey tower, designed by Studio Egret West, will see the demolition of an 18-storey office block off Bridge Street to make way for 370 homes.

A 19-storey office tower will also be added to the site, providing 350,000 sq ft of floor space with ground level retail.

The 38-storey tower at One Medlock Street, designed by Jon Matthews Architects for Dominus Group and Premier Inn, will provide more than 1,000 student bedrooms and 3,000 sq ft of retail space. The scheme will also see the construction of around 400,000 sq ft of office space in a separate 13-storey office block.

These approvals were followed in terms of size by a 20-storey hotel tower designed by Simpson Haugh for Ancoats Manchester Ltd. Set to become the first Hilton Motto hotel in the UK, it will contain 154 rooms close to Manchester's Northern Quarter.

A large 14-storey student accommodation block designed by Tim Groom Architects for House of Social, part of Vita Group, was also approved yesterday. It will contain a further 576 student bedrooms and a 14,000 sq ft food hall on the ground floor.

BDP's Ancoats Works scheme, designed for Capital & Centric and Kamani Property Group, the firm owned by Adam Kamani, a member of the billionaire Kamani family which owns online clothes retailer Boohoo, was also approved. It will see the construction of 193 apartments behind a restored Victorian warehouse facade.

Other schemes given the nod include a 261-home residential scheme designed by Leach Rhodes Walker Architects for AXIS-RE, and a 172-room student accommodation building designed by Lechler Hayes Architects for Tiger Developments.

The North-west has bounced back strongly from the construction slump seen across the UK at the end of last year amid rapidly increasing inflation rates. Last month's RIBA Future Trends survey, which measures the near-term confidence of architects, found the North of England to be the most optimistic part of the country for practices, with confidence growing faster than any other region.

Source; Building