Salboy has bought the former Boddingtons Brewery in Manchester to develop a £195m mixed-use scheme.
The 52,700 sq ft site, home of “the cream of Manchester” until 2005, will be redeveloped as 556 homes and 31,000 sq ft of offices and shops. The scheme will comprise five buildings, including a 26-storey tower, designed by Assael Architecture.
The project, yet to be given a name, forms part of Manchester City Council’s residential-led regeneration of the brewery site and sits next to Manchester College’s new £100m city centre campus. The council first published its strategic regeneration framework for the site in 2015.
Salboy co-founder and managing director Simon Ismail said: “The future of this site has been the subject of local speculation for too long and we are excited to mobilise construction as soon as early 2023 to bring more sought-after homes to people who want to work, live and study in Manchester.”
The scheme will be built by Salboy’s dedicated construction partner Domis, with mobilisation due on site in early 2023.
Since the brewery closed there have been a number of attempts to redevelop the site. Ask Developments and HOK Architects submitted plans in 2007, which were scuppered by the financial crash. In 2010, ASK won permission for a 200-bedroom hotel designed by HKR Architects.
Then Realty Estates with architect AHR had plans for a mixed-use scheme in 2014. Realty sold up in 2016. Assael’s plans were originally drawn up for Prosperity UX Manchester in 2018, as Old Brewery Gardens. Prosperity planned to start work in 2019, but instead appointed Avison Young and MTRE to find a buyer. Prosperity UX then went bust in June 2021.
Now Salboy plans to deliver Assael’s design but appears to have ditched the Old Brewery Gardens brand – it said the scheme “will be named in due course”.
Salboy has delivered more than 2,750 new homes in Manchester and neighbouring Salford. The group has 11 schemes in development or planning in the North West, London and Cornwall, valued at around £1bn and comprising about 2,000 homes.
In June 2022, the Salboy team entered a joint venture agreement with Relentless, the property developer owned by former England and Manchester United footballer Gary Neville. That will deliver Manchester’s long-anticipated St Michael’s development, a scheme comprising a five-star hotel, 180 homes and leisure spaces.
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