Sillavan’s Salford student scheme satisfies stipulations
PLANS to build four student apartment blocks off Trinity Way ranging from six to 17 storeys look set to be approved by Salford City Council tomorrow.
Sillavan Developments – run by Daren Whittaker, who is also a director of Leeds-based property and construction company Renaker – is proposing to build 327 student apartments and around 3,500 sq ft of commercial space on the former Sillavan Way industrial estate site.
Currently, the land sits vacant but is surrounded by other buildings, including Highcross’s £10m Deva Centre office scheme in the former Chester’s Brewery complex, the Fresh apartments complex and the Model Lodging House scheme.
Sillavan Developments’ site, which is accessed from Chapel St, will contain a six, seven, ten- and 17-storey block of apartments, as well as parking for 126 cars, 5 motorbikes and 114 bikes.
The majority of apartments in the scheme (241) would be two-bed, although there would also be 34 one-bed and 52 three-bed units. It has been designed by OMI Architects.
Several schemes had been planned for the site previously, including a 26-storey residential scheme by Fresh Development (Manchester) Ltd, which was owned by Liverpool-based developer Raymond Smith. It gained planning for the project in February 2009, but the company was later placed into administration and planning expired in February, after Sillavan Developments had bought the land from developers.
Planning officers have recommended that the scheme, stating that it “is a high quality development that will enhance the character of the local area, removing an increasingly derelict former industrial site that has remained unused for many years”.
A decision on whether to approve the scheme will be taken by Salford’s planning committee tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mario Minchella Architects has re-submitted a significantly revised proposal to build student properties on the former Manchester Alloys & Metals site on Meadow Road, next to the University’s Peel Park campus.
The scheme, brought on behalf of Northumberland-based client BW Elliott, has seen a previous, eight-storey development containing 496 properties remodelled into a smaller-scale scheme with three-storey buildings containing 126 units.
The original scheme was refused planning permission in May, but the latest application argues that the revised scheme “reflects both the character of this residential part of Lower Broughton as well as the site’s River Irwell frontage”.
A decision is expected in October.
