Developers home in on Ancoats

THE Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is working on a string of small property deals in Ancoats.

The agency inherited large amounts of land in Ancoats from the North West Regional Development Agency which compulsorily purchased the area between Oldham Street and Rochdale Canal to bring forward development.

A handful of large schemes, such as UK Land & Property’s Nuovo apartment scheme at the former Sarah Point site and Renaker’s Royal Mills, are underway but the HCA is in talks with developers over the future of smaller buildings and plots of land.

Manchester-based Forshaw Land & Property has been selected as a preferred developer for the Morning Star Hostel site in George Leigh Street. According to the HCA it is now in acquisition talks for the site which it wants to convert into 22 apartments.

Stockport’s Armitage Construction is in talks to buy a former sub-station in Jersey Street which it wants to convert into 2,000 sq ft of office space and 750 sq ft of retail. In Blossom Street a company called First Step Ltd is buying the former Edinburgh Castle pub to turn it into offices and residential space.

The Halle Orchestra has conducted its second deal in the area, taking a five-year lease on St Michael’s Church in George Leigh Street. The HCA invested £500,000 to bring the empty property back into use as a community facility. The Halle, which has already acquired St Peter’s Church in Blossom Street to use as rehearsal space, will manage the building on behlaf of community groups.

Meanwhile, St Michael’s former presbytery next door is being acquired by Warrington-based Hillcrest Homes which is planning 12 townhouses.

David Chilton, head of Manchester for the HCA, said: “We’ve got control so we can influence what happens and funders can invest knowing what’sd going to happen over a period of time. We’ve got momentum which we need to build on. There’s a real confidence here.”

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