Urban & Civic plots £300m schemes at key Manchester sites

PROPERTY group Urban & Civic is planning to build hundreds of apartments and hotel rooms in Manchester after sealing a deal to buy two major development sites from investment bank Morgan Stanley.

The group, formed through a reverse takeover of Terrace Hill in April, has spent £22.45m on the Origin site on the edge of Manchester’s gay village and the Renaissance hotel in Blackfriars Street.

Morgan Stanley acquired the former West Properties assets when it picked up a distressed loan portfolio from Ireland’s “bad bank” – the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) – in 2012.

In its annual figures Urban & Civic said it exchanged contracts on the sites on Monday and is now planning eight buildings with a development value of £300m which will be built between 2017-21.

It said its early designs for the Renaissance site include 600 apartments in four separate blocks, a 200 bedroom hotel, and a 300-space basement car park with retail and food units. The estimated development value is £225m and construction is expected to take place over a three-year period from 2018.

At Origin the existing underground car park will be retained and 240 apartments or 270 student flats will be constructed along with a 165-bedroom hotel. The total development value will be £75m and work will take place over three years from 2016-17.

Urban & Civic has also invested in a site in Cambridge. Chairman Nigel Hugill said: “Cambridge and Manchester are on the wish lists of most fund managers at the moment and our judgement is that there is still some way to go in both local economies.”

West Properties, owned by Donal Mulryan, bought the Renaissance site in 2007 and later submitted Ian Simpson-designed plans for 248 apartments, 61,700 sq ft retail space and a 250-bed luxury hotel. Origin was to have 60,000 sq ft of offices, 180 apartments, a boutique hotel, and shops but the development stalled after foundations had been put in.

Documents filed with the Land Registry show the Renaissance site was bought by Morgan Stanley in June 2012 for £14.7m through the Jersey-registered vehicle Deansgate Cronus. The Origin site was transferred to Origin Ltd, registered to the same address, on the same day for £4.5m.

Manchester-based Renaker Build is said to be in talks to buy a third former West Properties plot in Owen Street plot, near Deansgate station.

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