£37m funding deal to repurpose one of city’s oldest surviving Victorian mills
Manchester-based social impact developer Capital&Centric has agreed a £37m deal with Paragon Bank to finance the restoration of Talbot Mill as part of plans to repurpose it into 190 new distinctive homes for rent.
The £55m plans to reimagine the historic mill and create a new-build neighbouring 10-storey apartment block began in May 2024.
Built in 1855, the imposing red-brick mill on Castlefield’s Ellesmere Street was the product of Manchester’s textile boom. Its canal side location will now offer residents a lush hidden garden, with green spaces to meet and hang out.
Tom Wilmot, joint managing director at Capital&Centric, said: “We love to restore and repurpose historic buildings but as one of Manchester’s oldest mills, Talbot Mill is something a bit different, and we’re buzzing to be bringing it back to its former glory.
“It had a huge role to play in the industrial revolution in the city and now it gets to be part of the city’s future.”
He added: “We’re retaining as many features as we can to keep the history of the mill alive and so that our residents can enjoy becoming custodians of the past whilst enjoying all the trappings of modern-day living.”
Simon Dekker, senior relationship director at Paragon led on the deal, and said: “Paragon launched its Build-to-Rent loan programme in the specialist development space early last year.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing the finished development and working with the Capital&Centric team again in the future.”
One of the city’s last massive mills to be restored, it was Talbot that spearheaded the rapid transformation of the Cornbrook area from undeveloped land to a powerful industrial hub in the late 19th century.
It went on to have a colourful history, dominating the local cotton industry in the early 1900s.
It was even used as a mushroom farm in the 1980s and, more recently, the set of a period drama and a massive art exhibition.
Capital&Centric’s restoration of Manchester’s iconic listed buildings, includes Crusader Mill, Ducie Street Warehouse and Neptune Mill in Piccadilly East, and Minshull Warehouse and Minto&Turner at the Kampus garden neighbourhood near Canal Street.
Capital&Centric will retain Talbot Mill for rent, something it has already done on a number of sites creating and investing in communities for people of all ages.
Talbot Mill is one of eight live construction sites for the developer which said it invests £3m a week in regeneration and is continuing its expansion into new towns and cities across the UK, including Buxton, Wolverhampton, Gateshead, Sheffield,
