Westbury Homes has unveiled plans for an £80m landmark residential scheme that will form part of the £500m Spinningfields regeneration in the heart of Manchester’s city centre.
The housebuilder’s plans include 350 apartments together with a number of penthouses, and over 2,322 sq m (25,000 sq ft) of retail and leisure, which may be used for restaurants and a health club. Prices for the flats will range from £100,000 through to £1m for the penthouses.
The scheme will stretch alongside the River Irwell. A new thoroughfare linking Bridge Street and New Quay Street, to be known as the Left Bank, will also be created.
Tina Smith, managing director of Westbury Homes (North West), said: “This prime site gave us scope to create a substantial scheme. It’s a great location, being close to Deansgate and the city’s legal quarter, and we’re aiming this development at the upper end of the market.”
Westbury’s plans fly in the face of recent concerns, voiced by local agents, about a serious oversupply of residential space in the city centre. Smith commented: “There is definitely enough demand to satisfy the amount of resi development going on in Manchester at the moment.”
A planning application has been submitted by Westbury and a decision is expected by October. Work should start on site in early 2001.
Allied London has formed the Spinningfields Development Group with Manchester city council and Manchester College of Art & Technology (MANCAT), to bring forward the development of the 8.9ha (22 acre) Spinningfields site.
Dunlop Heywood is letting agent for Spinningfields.
EGi News 22/08/00
