Property round-up: Milliners Yard; Morgan Sindall; Atelier MB; Prima Group; Kings Hall College; Keepmoat; Regent’s Park; Aptitude
Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate has completed the redevelopment of Milliners Yard in Liverpool.
Milliners Yard, which was previously the Hughes House warehouse building on London Road, comprises 258 energy-efficient homes targeted at keyworkers, including 144 one-bedroom apartments, 99 two-bedroom apartments and 15 studio apartments.
The development involved social enterprise, Home Group.
Milliners Yard is located near those working at some of the largest key worker organisations in the city, such as the Royal University of Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool John Moores University and The University of Liverpool. The scheme offers discounted market rent (DMR) units for key worker residents.
These new DMR homes help relieve pressure on local authorities to allocate homes to individuals and families who are on their waiting lists but have little short term prospects of having their needs addressed.
Guy Glover, Fund manager of the CT UK Residential strategy at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, said: “This exciting development has delivered regeneration and a new community for the Fabric District in Liverpool. Milliners Yard is a prime example of the private sector working with social sector organisations, in this case Home Group, to bring together a vision of immediate impact to individuals.”
Kitson Keen, Director of Development at Home Group, said: “Flexible Rent is a scalable ‘build to rent’ product, which provides a high quality mix of private and discounted rented homes for people on a variety of incomes. We have received an unprecedented number of enquiries, both for the market rent and discounted market rent homes.”
UK Land & Property was the scheme’s developer and its Managing Director, Simon Parker, said: “The impact of the building and its new community of residents will contribute significantly to the regeneration initiatives and ambitions of the locality.”
Milliners Yard was constructed by Equans, developed jointly by Home Group and UKLP and funded by Columbia Threadneedle Investments.
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CGI of Riverside Primary School
Morgan Sindall is to design and build a new-look Riverside Primary School in Seacombe, Wirral, with a rebuild of the existing school buildings.
Riverside caters for 210 pupil places for ages 4-11 with an additional 34 nursery places for ages 2-4. Additionally, Wirral Council also fund an additional 16 places for pupils with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs.
The school’s two existing buildings will be demolished and be replaced with a single two-storey building, with temporary accommodation being delivered during the build programme.
Following client engagement meetings, designs for the school will go to public consultation ahead of a planning submission. The aim is to welcome pupils into the new building at the start of the 2026/27 school year.
Steven Gregory, North West area director for Morgan Sindall Construction, said: “Creating state-of-the-art facilities like this help to give children the best start in life, and we are pleased to be playing our part.”
Mrs Lahive, Headteacher of Riverside Primary School, said: “Riverside School is at the heart of the Seacombe community, and we’re thrilled to be getting a new school designed around the needs of our pupils, staff, and parents.”
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CGI of Atelier MB Chester Road scheme
Atelier MB has submitted a planning application to Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council to transform the 0.5-acre former industrial site at 332-340 Chester Road into a 33 new home, car-free development.
Submitted on behalf of The Trustees of the Yang Sing Group of Individual SIPPs, the proposals are for a new building which will contain 31, two-bedroom apartments and two one-bedroom apartments over five floors.
The site, close to the boundary with Manchester city centre and on the edge of the Empress Conservation Area, is well served by public transport with the Cornbrook Metrolink stop only a short walk away and frequent bus services, and it is for this reason no car parking facilities will be provided.
However, each home will have up to two secure cycle parking spaces.
Atelier MB has worked closely with engineers Hydrock on the design to minimise energy consumption and carbon emissions. Photovoltaic panels will be incorporated on the roof and along with high levels of insulation, heat pumps and heat recovery systems, this will reduce the overall energy consumption of the building by more than 50%.
Apartments on the lower ground and ground floor levels have private gardens, while homes on the upper levels have balconies.
Heloise Wood, design director, Atelier MB, said: “332-340 Chester Road has given us a wonderful opportunity to design modern, sustainable homes while respecting the scale and heritage of the buildings close by.”
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Prescot Police Station plans
Plans to convert a former police station and law courts dating back to the late 1800s into affordable homes have been approved.
Prescot Police Station in Derby Street, Knowsley, has been empty since 2011 and will be redeveloped by housing association, Prima Group, to create 13 affordable homes made up of apartments, bungalows and new houses.
Opened in 1870, it was one of the country’s first purpose-built police stations and a large number of original architectural and operational features have been retained in a carefully designed scheme that sympathetically complements Prescot town centre’s conservation area.
The main building, with Gothic features, special brick detailing and carved stonework, will be converted into seven apartments keeping the Victorian period high vaulted ceilings and large glass brick windows.
The cells and former Judge’s changing quarters will be opened up to provide kitchen dining and living spaces in one of the ground floor apartments, while the shape of the courtroom roof will be retained to form upper floor duplexes.
A staircase that led prisoners from cells to the court room will form a feature of the communal area.
Externally, all sandstone brickwork will be cleaned and parts of the main façade will be re-pointed with lime mortar to further help return the station to its original appearance.
Outbuildings that were previously stables and used for storage have been retained and will be redeveloped into two bungalows.
In the courtyard, four energy-efficient three-bedroom homes will be built, all while staying in-keeping with the historical site by using brick facades and materials such as slate roofs and stone lintels.
Prima Group Chief Executive, John Ghader, said: “Being given permission to redevelop Prescot Police Station is fantastic news for the local community, returning an architecturally and culturally important building of great heritage value and interest back to its former glory.”
Prima Group, which was then known as Pier Head Housing Association, bought the site in December 2019 just before the Covid pandemic. It hopes to start on site this spring, subject to government funding for such schemes.
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New language school site
Letting agents, Edwards Property Consultants, has let a 10,161 sq ft self-contained building on Lever Street, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, to Kings Hall College, a new language school.
The two-storey building has been let on a 10-year lease at £25 per sq ft. The landlord, a family property company, had recently undertaken a comprehensive refurbishment of the character office premises to provide a facility conducive to a creative learning environment.
Its strategic location close to Piccadilly rail station ensures easy access for students commuting to and from the college.
Richard Dinsdale, Director at Edwards, said: “The refurbished space provides everything this dynamic college needs to support its vision of creating an inspiring educational space with a sense of community.”
JLMcr Property was the joint letting agent in the transaction and Kings Hall College was unrepresented.
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Wigan Council site visit
Through its ongoing partnership with Wigan Council,housebuilder, Keepmoat, has delivered 169 new homes, including 42 affordable units, with local housing association, Jigsaw Homes, and trained more than 19 young people in a relevant trade role.
Keepmoat invested £23.4m to transform an abandoned brownfield site in Worsley Mesnes to create the new homes to form ‘The Seasons’.
Cllr Susan Gambles, cabinet portfolio holder for housing and welfare at Wigan Council, said: “Keepmoat has been incredible in how they have worked with and for the community during this build.”
Julie Baker, Social Value Manager at Keepmoat North West, said: “Engaging with more than a thousand students from a range of schools across Wigan is testament to how hard we work to engage with as many local young people as possible.”
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Robin Day
Bolton’s last remaining ‘pay and play’ golf course has opened a new event venue as part of a multimillion-pound redevelopment plan.
The Lodge is the latest addition to Regent Park Golf Club’s facilities and involved a £600,000 investment.
This brings development work at the Lostock club to £4m, including improvements to the 18-hole course, clubhouse, nine-hole Par 3 academy course and nine-hole footgolf course.
An upmarket restaurant was opened two years ago.
Club managing director, Robin Day, also announced the granting of planning permission for a new adventure golf course to be built there: “I wanted to create a golf community here that had something for everyone,” he said.
“I wanted it to be different from the usual idea of a golf club, so, instead, we have a golf centre.”
He said one major element of success was Regent Park’s successful social membership, launched two years ago and now standing at more than 5,000 members.
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Gareth Preston
A Cheshire gym has won planning permission to move to new premises to allow it to expand and triple in size.
Aptitude Health & Fitness, in Farndon, launched in the middle of the Covid pandemic at Monument Place Business Park, which is owned by the Barnston Estate.
Founder, Gareth Preston, has now been given planning permission by Cheshire West and Chester Council which will enable Aptitude to move into a 16,000 sq ft building next to his current gym.
Gareth, a former athlete from Huntington in Chester, plans to grow hisl business and offer a wide variety of new services and facilities, as well as a much bigger space to his members.
He is investing more than £200,000 in the expansion and relocation which, once complete, will provide employment for an extra 20 staff.
A Crowdfunding campaign aims to raise an additional £30,000 to allow Aptitude to speed up the timescale of the work.
Gareth said: “I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved with the business over the past four years, and excited that we will be able to give members an even better offer with Aptitude 2.0.”
Ed Barnston, Manager of the Barnston Estate, said: “There’s a very special business community here in Farndon and it’s fantastic to see businesses coming here to grow.”
