Developer unveils latest plans for Piccadilly East area

Chapeltown Warehouse

Capital&Centric, the Manchester social mission developer, has unveiled plans for its new HQ, as well new workspace as part of the restoration of an historic warehouse in the city’s Piccadilly East area.

The company has acquired Chapeltown Warehouse, nex to the owner occupier community at Crusader Mill on Chapeltown Street.

The plan is to transform it into 20,000 sq ft of high quality stripped back workspace for creative industries, as well as the new Capital&Centric headquarters.

Proposals are for the work spaces to be split over four floors of the mill, with the plan to turn the ground floor into a café bar and social hub for businesses and residents from the surrounding community.

Dating back to the mid-19th century, the building was previously part of Manchester’s booming textile industry. Its restoration will mark Capital&Centric’s next major investment in the Piccadilly East neighbourhood.

Capital&Centric co-founder, Adam Higgins, said: “We were early investors in the Piccadilly East neighbourhood as we knew it could be something special.

“Years later, it’s still growing in popularity and we’re plotting our next restoration. Chapeltown Warehouse is the missing piece of the puzzle in that block, a rundown former textile mill in need of a decent future.”

He added: “To be successful, it’s important that new parts of the city aren’t just full of apartments.

“We’ve already delivered the Jenga hotel and now we want to add the workplaces and ground floor coffee shop to ensure that Piccadilly East is vibrant and active during the day, too. Whilst we’ll keep all of the historic features like the cast iron beams and exposed brickwork, of course we also want to give it the trademark Capital&Centric design edge, too.”

The developer has been instrumental in the growth of Piccadilly East. In 2015 it set out to transform a bunch of empty and derelict sites into a vibrant neighbourhood at the heart of the city.

Plans for the warehouse

Chapeltown Warehouse will neighbour homeowner communities at the historic Crusader Mill and new-build Phoenix block.

The team also recently completed the jenga-inspired Leonardo Hotel, which opened in May, while the consented Ferrous will see an additional plot on Chapeltown Street turned into further homes, complete with ground level shops, pocket parks and The Cabin, a space for community pop-up events.

It is expected the workspaces will be ready to welcome their first occupiers in 2023.

Capital&Centric is now taking the approach it pioneered in Manchester to other locations. The team is about to start work on the Goods Yard neighbourhood in Stoke-on-Trent – one of the largest awards for a single project from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund – and is well under way transforming Eyewitness Works in Sheffield into apartments, set to be featured in a Channel 4 primetime show next year.

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