Ex-N Brown director behind Village apartments plan

NIGEL Alliance, a major shareholder in the N Brown retail group, is behind a plan to turn a Canal Street warehouse block into serviced apartments.

Mr Alliance retired from the board of the company in 2012 at the same time as his brother, Lord Alliance, stepped down as chairman.

His Cringle Corporation property business acquired the 15,500 sq ft building on the corner of Canal Street and Chorlton Street from receivers in April.

The building was once home to the Mash & Air bar-restaurant and Jongleurs comedy club, and was acquired by developer Colin Shenton with a view to turning it into apartments.

This plan never came to fruition and Mr Shenton put it on the market in 2008. The identity of the owner prior to the appointment of receivers has not been disclosed.

Josh Senior of Cringle Corporation said: “Chorlton Street is a fantastic location for those needing a city centre location benefiting from a number of retail and leisure facilities. The Chorlton Street building’s canal side setting and the easy links to Manchester’s central business district and main shopping area further add to the site’s convenient location.”

The building was marketed by CBRE which has now been instructed to find an operator for the serviced apartments scheme which will have about 40 units.

Manchester-based N Brown has an £835m turnover and is behind the SimplyBe, Jacamo and JD Williams brands.