Realty submits plans for £35m Gateway House upgrade
REALTY Estates, the Manchester-based property development company owned by Yousef Tishbi, has submitted a planning application for a £35m redevelopment of the Gateway House building at Piccadilly approach.
The proposed scheme, which has been designed by Manchester-based architects Hodder + Partners, will see the 1960s building stripped back to its concrete frame and re-clad. A 270-bed, mid-market hotel with new ground floor retail units are planned for Gateway House, alongside a new gym-health club with direct access to Manchester Piccadilly station.
A 45,000 sq ft, Grade A office building is also planned on an adjacent site facing Ducie St which is currently used for car hire drop-offs and as surface-level parking.
Hodder + Partners chairman Stephen Hodder told TheBusinessDesk.com that a decision on the planning application for the project is expected by the end of the year. If approved, a start on site is likely by the end of Spring 2012 and could take 12 months to complete.
Development of the office building and gym could be phased, or the entire development could be built in one go, depending on the requirements of potential operators.
“They’re talking to operators at the moment,” said Mr Hodder. “There’s been some quite significant offers.”
The timing of the building programme will also depend on negotiations with Manchester Piccadilly station’s owner, Network Rail. Part of Hodder & Partner’s proposals involve installing stairs and lifts from the new hotel to parking underneath the station, which is currently not linked to the buildings above.
A design statement from Hodder + Partners states that the Gateway House, which was originally designed by Richard Seifert & Partners, is “one of Manchester’s greatest modernist buildings”.
“As a result, the strategy for the refurbishment of Gateway House is one of conservation rather than reconstruction,” it said.
“The desire is for the façade to capture the dynamism of Station Approach, whereby over 20 million people pass every year. The proposal is to utilise LED lights that will create the largest piece of public artwork in the city.”
