Twin towers proposed for Whitworth Street

MANCHESTER developer Daren Whitaker is looking to build two residential tower blocks just off Whitworth Street.

Mr Whitaker, who runs Renaker Build, already has permission for 497 apartments in 31 and 19-storey towers next to the River Irwell in Salford through another company called Pinnacle Developments (NW). The area sits between Trinity Way and the railway tracks which run out of Victoria Station.

Now CS Developments (Manchester), of which he is a director, has submitted plans for a 282 apartments across two towers of 22 and 29 storeys on the banks of the River Medlock close to Whitworth Street West, and overlooking the railway lines that run into Oxford Road station. City Tower in Piccadilly is 30 storeys high.

The area is currently used as a surface car park and sits across Cambridge Street from the Percy Brothers Hotspur Press building which is on the edge of the First Street development.

A planning statement prepared by Deloitte states: “The clean lines and staggered geometry of the building together with the restrained palette of good quality materials creates an appropriate development that will enhance the corner of Cambridge Street with the reinstated River Street in a way that, through the scale and massing of the proposals, helps stitch together the very different buildings around the site with the First Street development.”

Last year Renaker Build bought the Royal Mills residential scheme in Ancoats from ING Real Estate. Renaker’s sister company Paragon Developments is already on site converting two former mills, Paragon and Royal Mills, after securing £4.7m from a government fund designed to kick start stalled schemes.

The architect on the latest scheme is Hodder & Partners.