Manchester revives plans for 4,000 homes at Holt Town
MANCHESTER City Council has revived the ambitious Holt Town residential scheme for east Manchester.
Cibitas Investments submitted plans in 2008 and won an extension three years later to turn a 95-acre area, dotted with old factories and warehouses between the city and the Etihad Stadium, into more than 4,300 homes.
Following the financial crisis the project stalled but the council is now pushing for Cibitas to submit a fresh plan by June 2014.
When the project was first unveiled in 2006 it was talked of as an “uburb”, meaning an urban suburb, a mile from the city centre but benefiting from open space, family homes and a wide range of amenities. Both the Ashton Canal and the River Medlock run through the site which now also has a tram stop.
The council has hired Toronto-based Urban Strategies to refresh its 2008-2018 east Manchester strategic regeneration framework taking into account developments in Ancoats and the changes around the Etihad Stadium. This framework will go to a public consultation in the autumn.
A draft document published by the council ahead of an executive meeting next week shows the River Medlock and the Ashton Canal are still central to the project which it is hoped could link up to the ongoing regeneration of Ancoats and future development around a new high speed rail terminal at Piccadilly.
It said: “The Holt Town area and its wider environs will be play a pivotal role in accommodating new residential and commercial development and creating an environment that seamlessly knits this neighbourhood into the growth and extension of the city centre eastwards over the ten to fifteen years.
“The draft Holt Town Regeneration Framework attached to this report has been developed within that context, clearly reflecting the potential that the area can make to the long term transformation of the city.”
Cibitas is a joint venture between a number of development partners include the real estate arm of Dutch banking giant ING and developers Stanhope, Waystone, Pigeon Properties and Shawbridge Management – the latter of which is a company owned by former AMEC chairman and chief executive Sir Alan Cockshaw. It is now being led by Stuart McLoughlin, the managing director of Derby-based construction business Waystone, who was unable to discuss it as he is on holiday.
The city council estimates the need for 55,000 new homes by 2027. It believes 5,000 could be delivered in the next three years – and 13,000 up to 2019. The authority has previously identified Holt Town and the nearby Medlock Valley as a, “major opportunity which needs to be repositioned in light of the changing market and demand”.
Other east Manchester projects that appear not to have survived are a plan by Redrow’s Harrow Estates for 1,000 homes and a proposal by Irish developer Grangefield Estates for a 4m sq ft Health City in Ardwick.
Harrow won approval for 1,000 homes at the old Ciba Chemicals site between Ashton New Road and Ashton Old Road. The company drew up plans for Dreyfus Village named after Charles Dreyfus who founded the first chemical works on the site, Clayton Aniline in 1876. It did not happen and is now the site of Manchester City’s Etihad Campus which features training grounds and other facilities.
In 2008 Grangefield was granted outline planning approval for a 4 million sq ft “Health City” on a 38-acre site near Piccadilly station in Ardwick. It planned to deliver offices, 2,000 homes, and a hotel around the first multi-purpose healthcare complex to be delivered by the private sector in the UK. The same year the Government pulled the plug on east Manchester’s plans for a super casino after winning the licence competition the previous year.
