Property round-up: Stanley Land & Homes; Science & Industry Museum; Keppie Massie; Housing 21; Legat Owen; Holiday Inn; ARRIVE
Stanley Land and Homes has completed the handover of 15 new apartments in Birkenhead that will help to ease the demand for affordable homes for single person occupants and couples.
The scheme, developed in partnership with Wirral Methodist Housing Association and Holmpatrick Developments, is made up of one-bedroom apartments and has regenerated a derelict brownfield site in the Rock Ferry area.
The prominent site, on the junction of New Chester Road, a main road into Birkenhead town centre, was formerly terraced houses but had been vacant for many years with redevelopment considered unviable.
Chris Curtis, director of Stanley Land and Homes, said: “This was a challenging site with issues over access rights and unidentified freeholders, but our team and project partners worked extremely hard to overcome these challenges. This is a fantastic demonstration of regeneration and affordable housing delivery right where it is needed.”
The three-storey apartment building has been designed in compliance with Homes England quality standards and the Nationally Described Space Standards.
The apartments will be available for affordable rent, defined as up to a maximum of 80% of the local market rental value and home to individuals and couples looking to live in a sustainable area, close to connections for Liverpool and Chester.
Paul Carhart, chief executive of Wirral Methodist Housing Association, said: “The Rock Ferry scheme is a great example of how to effectively restore a long vacant site and provide residents with a high quality, sustainable place to live.”
The professional team on the project includes Holmpatrick Developments (main contractor), AJP Engineers (structural engineers), PWA Planning (planning consultants), Primas Law (legal advisors), Eden Building Design (architects) and WhiteleyEaves (employers agent).
In addition to the handover in Birkenhead, Stanley Land and Homes has recently submitted plans for 170 new homes in St Helens and 27 new homes in Wigan.
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Station House
The Landmark Trust and the Science and Industry Museum have announced a new use as a holiday property for The Station Agent’s House, one of the city’s oldest surviving Georgian houses. This accessible holiday let will sleep up to eight people, providing a new place to stay in Manchester and sympathetic new use for one of Manchester and the UK’s significant heritage buildings.
Situated on the corner of Liverpool Road and Water Street in the heart of Castlefield, the house was built in 1808 for John Rothwell, partner in a nearby dyeworks. It pre-dates and is adjoined to the museum’s Grade I-listed 1830 Station. Liverpool Road Station was the Manchester terminus of the world’s first steam-powered, inter-city railway designed to carry both passengers and goods and its 1830 Station is the oldest surviving passenger railway station in the world.
The house then provided accommodation for the station agent at Liverpool Road Station before being converted for shop use in the mid-20th century. Unsuitable for museum gallery use due to its size and layout as a former residential house, it has been used as offices since the Science and Industry Museum first opened on the site from 1983, when the shop frontage was removed, and a replica of the historic doorway reinstated.
Sally MacDonald, director of the Science and Industry Museum, said: “At the Science and Industry Museum we explore ideas that change the world from our globally significant industrial heritage site. We are so pleased to be working with the Landmark Trust to lead on crucial work to this building as part of our plans to create a more sustainable museum and reveal new spaces and perspectives for visitors to enjoy.”
Anna Keay, director of The Landmark Trust, said: “The building will be sensitively repaired and made available to all through self-catering stays and free public open days. As a charity, the Landmark Trust is committed to saving and sustaining outstanding heritage, and is thrilled to be playing a role in Manchester.”
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A 34,000 sq ft mixed-use space on a key gateway route into Liverpool city centre has been listed for sale by Keppie Massie.
The five-storey property is located on Scotland Road, adjacent to the northern entrance to the Queensway Tunnel, and currently comprises office space to the ground floor and a 30-bedroom hostel with warden accommodation across two upper floors.
It is being sold with vacant possession, offering potential for various uses subject to planning.
Such is the prominent location of the brick-built property, it also benefits from an additional annual income generated by a large advertising hoarding to its southern elevation.
Tim Garnett, head of commercial at Keppie Massie, said: “This is a rare property in terms of its position and scale, which is ideally suited to a developer who is looking to add value through a refurbishment or renovation.
“Ongoing regeneration is now connecting this area of Liverpool with the city centre and there is an enormous scope of potential future uses for the space.”
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CGI of Tanners Court
Housing 21’s new retirement living development for older people has officially been named as Tanners Court in Runcorn, Cheshire.
The scheme will comprise 35 one- and two-bedroom apartments, all of which will be available to rent by local older people in Halton.
Tanners Court is being delivered by Housing 21 in partnership with Halton Borough Council, Challenger Building Services, Falconer Chester Hall, Savills, Phillip Wright Associates, HK Planning, and Homes England which is providing grant funding.
Bridget Faughnan-Bing, head of construction at Housing 21, said: “We are pleased to have named Tanners Court and we look forward to continuing to work closely with our partners as we near the completion of building our retirement living development. Once open, the scheme will provide 35 much needed homes for older people in the local area.”
Once open, the Retirement Living scheme will enable residents to live independently in their own apartment with access to a spacious residents’ lounge, gardens and an on-site local housing manager to help on hand with any queries.
Richard Hutchinson, director at Challenger Building Services, said: “Our team understand that they’re not building apartments, they’re creating homes for people just like them, so we go the extra mile in terms of quality and attention to detail.”
The development is expected to open in late 2023.
Another nearby retirement living development by Housing 21 is expected to open in Widnes in 2024.
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St Ives Way
Legat Owen has advised on deals that have seen the sale of unit 1-2 St Ives Way in Sandycroft to Hollins Murray Group (HMG), and the combined 9,910 sq ft space pre-let to DX Delivery.
The property consultancy, working jointly with Gerald Eve, acted for ATS on the disposal of the unit and subsequently retained to let the premises which are being substantially refurbished, with completion expected this month.
Demand for the property was described as strong, with the sale proceeding to a competitive best bids scenario.
Legat Owen then advised incoming owner, HMG, on pre-letting the unit to courier business DX Delivery, which is expanding in the area.
DX Delivery has agreed terms on a 10-year lease at a rent of £70,000 pa, to be concluded once HMG has completed works and handed over the building for occupation.
Rupert Chadwick-Dunbar, surveyor at Legat Owen, said: “The appeal of Sandycroft as a location was highlighted by the strength of interest in acquiring the property as an investment, and then further confirmed by the space being snapped up by an ambitious courier business which recognises the benefits of its strategic location and multiple access points to the regions road network.”
St Ives Way is situated off Factory Road in the well established Sandycroft area, around six miles to the west of Chester.
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Malcolm Davies and family members
A well-known local family has taken over the management of its hotel again, The Holiday Inn A55 Chester West, after years of the hotel being managed by a management franchise.
Malcolm Davies a local businessman, and his wife Edna, built the hotel more than 30 years ago, and while Malcom and his daughters Caroline and Jennifer initially managed the hotel successfully for a number of years when they first owned it, the hotel was latterly managed by a hotel management group.
However, in 2021, they made the decision to take over the management of the hotel themselves again, more than 22 years since they were last at the helm.
Jennifer is now the general manager of the hotel, and Caroline is the operations manager. Harriet, Malcolm’s granddaughter, is the sales and marketing executive, and other members of the family work in different parts of the hotel.
The team was recently awarded the ‘Going for Gold Leaders’ Award by IHG the Holiday Inn group, recognising the quality of service, and attention to detail.
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Chris Capes (Liverpool Waters), Liza Marco, Rebekah Lloyd-Beere, James Whittaker (Peel L&P)
Peel L&P’s flexible workspace concept, ARRIVE, has landed at Princes Dock, Liverpool Waters.
The £500,000 transformation of the ground floor of No 10 Princes Dock in to a flexible, managed workspace for start-ups and small to medium enterprises opened to the public on April 26.
ARRIVE’s expansion into Liverpool follows on from its success at Salford’s MediaCity where Peel L&P invested £3.3m refurbishing MediaCity’s Blue and Tomorrow buildings into its first ARRIVE workspace which opened in 2018.
ARRIVE No 10 Princes Dock provides more than 60 desks, as well as a boardroom, meeting rooms, a kitchen breakout area, and focus rooms where occupiers can take a suite from four desks up to 12. Occupiers have the added flexibility of using meeting rooms in both MediaCity and No 10 Princes Dock.
OBI was appointed by Peel L&P to deliver ARRIVE’s expansion into Liverpool Waters, following the success of its extensive refurbishment programme at ARRIVE MediaCity.
Rebekah Lloyd-Beere, head of ARRIVE Managed Workspace, said: “ARRIVE has been a huge success at MediaCity and the demand for flexible workspace, where companies can quickly scale up and down, has never been greater so we’re delighted to bring ARRIVE to the heart of this thriving waterfront destination at Liverpool Waters.”
Liza Marco, senior asset manager at Peel L&P’s Liverpool Waters, said: “ARRIVE adds a great new dimension to the offer here at Princes Dock. We now have Grade A offices, all verified net zero, available for everyone from start up micro businesses looking for a handful of desks and flexible meeting spaces, to established corporates with hundreds of staff. Already we have had interest in ARRIVE from new businesses looking to become part of the Liverpool Waters community, with several suites already under offer.”
