Planning committee thumbs up for Science Park, City stadium extension and revised office scheme

Bruntwood SciTech, Property Alliance and Manchester City Football Club walked away with glee from Thursday’s planning meeting held at Manchester City Council’s main chamber.

A site visit to the proposed King Street West project swung it for Property Alliance Group who were represented by architect John Matthews who impressed Councillors with his explanation of the how the scheme will restore the Victorian carriage works, but not the frontage, which is of lesser importance than they assumed.

A student scheme in Hulme was deferred, but clearly a majority of Councillors opposed it having listened to objections from residents.

Manchester City’s plans for new fan, entertainment and leisure facilities and an expanded North Stand were also approved, increasing capacity of the Etihad Stadium to over 60,000.

Work will start in November and the new North Stand will open in time for the 2025-26 season. Plans also include a new covered fan zone for 3,000 fans, new club shop, museum and a 400-bed hotel.

Plans by Great Places Housing for 22 social homes in Blackley and by IQ for a student block on the site of Chandos Hall near Piccadilly station were also approved.

However, plans in Hulme by Curlew Alternatives were turned down. A vocal Block the Block campaign in Hulme was initially successful, and received the support of local councillors and Lucy Powell MP.

The £60M Science Park project will see a six-storey purpose-built development and the home to UK Biobank – which Bruntwood describe as “the world’s most significant source of data and biological samples for health research.”

It will feature a range of specialist CL2 labs starting from 2,500 sq ft and up to 22,000 sq ft floors and be a core hub in attracting inward investment into UK regions, it is claimed.

It was agreed, in spite of objections from Green Party councillor Ekua Bayunu and local residents who expressed concerns about animal testing and dangerous emissions, despite reassurances that there will be no animal testing in the building or any dangerous emissions.

She also objected to a Purpose Built Student Accommodation scheme on Moss Lane East by Downing’s CitySide, which the committee approved by a majority vote. “When and where will it stop? Find out which of our councillors fight the extension of the corridor into our residential area in Moss Side. It’s the city centre everywhere…” she said on social media.

Housing Association Great Places Housing want to build 8 1-bed flats and 14 3-bed houses in Higher Blackley.

But the Greenheys lab building, bringing forward 131,000 sq ft of highly specialist lab space, expected to open in Spring 2026 follows the completion of its neighbouring building Base, which opened in July 2022 as a new tech hub for the campus.

Work will commence later this summer.

UK Biobank will move to Greenheys, and be home to its biological samples and laboratories, as well as a latest-generation robotic freezer that will store and retrieve up to 20 million biological samples donated by UK Biobank’s 500,000 volunteer participants.

Peter Crowther, property director at Bruntwood SciTech, said: “We are pleased to have had approval on our plans for the redevelopment of Greenheys which will see it become one of the most advanced and specialist life science spaces in the UK. With UK Biobank already announced to move to the new hub, we know this will be a big draw for scaling life science businesses who are keen to be located in the same building and access opportunities to work together with both them and the neighbouring researchers at The University of Manchester. The new Greenheys will build on the North West’s world-leading cluster of clinical, academic and commercial assets and we look forward to commencing with our enabling works later this summer and construction early next year.”

A local team has been appointed to work with Bruntwood SciTech on the redevelopment of Greenheys, consisting of BDP Architects, planning consultancy from Deloitte, cost consultancy from Walker Sime, DW Consulting for Structures and Civils, and Silcock Leedham for MEP.