Plans for £235m Angel Meadow submitted

Plans for the £235m Angel Meadow development in Manchester have been submitted to Manchester City Council.

The Far East Consortium (FEC) International and The Co-op lodged the planning application yesterday (Wednesday, May 17).

The residential development comprises 756 new homes across four buildings bordering Angel Meadow Park and is part of the city centre’s NOMA neighbourhood.

Gavin Taylor, regional general manager, FEC, said: “We are very pleased to submit Angel Meadow for planning.

“Working with 5plus Architects and Planit-IE we believe we have produced a scheme of true international calibre, which makes Angel Meadow Park the focal point for the growing community.

“We’ve paid close attention to activating the ground floors and the spaces between the buildings while also providing a wide range of homes suitable for families as well as professionals.  Our goal is to see long term occupancy of the homes in Angel Meadow and the development is geared towards private sale, rather than institutional investors.  ”

The four plots around Angel Meadow Park are on Gould Street, Aspin Lane and Old Mount Street.

In brief the design proposals include:

•    A 40 storey landmark residential tower, which will include large two-bedroom apartments with winter gardens, designed with families in mind.  The winter gardens are located every seven levels animating the tower into glazed stacked boxes.
•    The residential tower will have ground floor retail and leisure spaces with a landscaped elevated deck above.  A new series of stepped terraces incorporating seating and planting will link the Park with the new podium.
•    On Aspin Lane, the two proposed 22 and 17 storey apartment buildings, will have active ground floor uses bringing Aspin Lane back to life.
•    There will be five, three-bedroom townhouses on the ground floor building on Old Mount Street with 131 apartments above.  There will be a new route through the building, which is part nine and part 12 storeys, for residents from neighbouring buildings into the Park.

Jon Matthews, 5plus director said: “We are really proud of the designs for Angel Meadow – they embody everything we believe in as a practice – new buildings in context, giving everything back to the street, re-invigorating whole areas.

“It is a landmark step for this historically significant part of the city.”

Angel Meadow is just a five-minute walk from Victoria Station for mainline rail and Metrolink services.  It sits on the edge of the rapidly developing NOMA neighbourhood and is very close to the vibrant Northern Quarter with its many highly successful independent bars, restaurants and music venues.

Rob Bignold, head of commercial and investment property, The Co-op said: “We are delighted to see Angel Meadow submitted for planning, it is a very important next step for the second phase of residential development at NOMA and we look forward to seeing this vibrant neighbourhood grow.”

FEC was selected by The Co-op and Manchester Place as development partner for the scheme in summer last year and it is the first project in Manchester for the international property developer.  Last month FEC was announced as investor partner with Manchester City Council for the Northern Gateway project.

The planning submission follows public consultation which included two public exhibitions held at the Band on the Wall music venue, as well as plans being available for comment and questions online.

In addition to architects 5plus, the project team also includes planning and environmental advisors HOW, and engineering services providers WSP.

Subject to planning, building work is expected to begin by the end of the year with the first homes complete in 2019.