Design for Great Ancoats PRS scheme submitted

Manchester based Tim Groom Architects revealed its designs for a new £30 million 134 apartment scheme on behalf of Mulbury Homes.  The eight to 14 storey development at 74 – 88 Great Ancoats Street has been designed specifically for the Private Rented Sector (PRS) and all the apartments will be available for rent on completion.

Designed to reflect the historic street pattern, and to be sensitive to the surrounding warehouse buildings of Ancoats and the Northern Quarter, the façade of the building will be brick with glazed detailing to accentuate the reinterpretation of the historic street pattern.

The 134 apartments will range from studios through to three bedroom apartments.  All the apartments types meet the newly adopted London Design Guide Space Standards making them circa 10% larger than many of the apartments that are currently on offer in the market place.  Sizes range from 400 sq ft for a studio to 900 sq ft for a three bedroom.

The ground floor includes reception and lobby areas as well as 6000 sq ft of commercial office space.

The upper level apartments have fantastic views of the city with balconies for all units and extensive communal roof top gardens facing South West.

Tim Groom, director, Tim Groom Architects said:  “Great Ancoats Street is such an important route into the heart of Manchester and is on the doorstep to the Northern Quarter and New Islington.  We’ve worked hard on the design to help knit back together what has become a disjointed and, in places, run down street scape.

“The design of the apartments and the buildings reflect the increasing demand in the city centre for larger homes as well as the more traditional studio spaces.  More and more people want to stay in the City having moved here as young professionals and embraced City Centre living.”

Mulbury Homes and Tim Groom Architects have consulted with Manchester City Council, Heritage England, Places Matter and also held a public consultation on the plans in May.  Deloitte Real Estates is planning consultant and the scheme was submitted for planning approval on Tuesday 23 June 2015.  If planning permission is received, the development could start on site as early as January 2016 and be completed by summer 2017.

Greg Mulligan, a director of Mulbury Homes, said: “This is an exciting and inspiring scheme that will offer quality city living in the private rented sector. While this is our first PRS scheme, we’re already looking at a good number of city-centre development opportunities in Manchester to complement our portfolio of homes for private sale and our affordable housing developments across the North West.”

Mulbury Homes specialises in bringing forward quality development opportunities in the affordable housing and extra care sectors, as well as developing urban and city centre open-market housing developments.

The news received extensive press coverage including Architects Journal, BD, Property Week, Manchester Evening News, Place North West, Insider, Manchester Confidential and the Businessdesk.