‘Vertical community’ added to £1.35bn St John’s scheme

PLANS for a vertical village known as Trinity Islands has been added on to the £1.35bn St John’s scheme to create a new neighbourhood on the site of the Old Granada Studios in Manchester.
 
Property developer Allied London led by chief executive Michael Ingall  unveiled its plans today (Thursday), hard on the heels of the announcement of its scheme to build a new neighbourhood St John’s on and around the site of the studios in Quay Street.

Detailed plans for consultation on Trinity Islands, which will be the subject of a detailed planning submission later this summer, have been put on display at the studios by Allied London.

Trinity Islands will see the creation of a community living within one structure that incorporates places to live, shop, work, play and eat, as well as ‘green’ space.

The 4.7 acre total site, situated south of Liverpool Road, has historically been a difficult site surrounded by highways and infrastructure.

Trinity Islands aims to transform this peripheral site into a distinct and self-sufficient community that can flourish both economically and sustainably.  

The development will consist of 1,200 homes within six interconnecting towers across both sites and numerous other amenities including storage space, cycle sheds, convenience shopping, restaurants fronting the river, as well as the potential for medical and education facilities and workspace.

Addressing a group of interested parties yesterday, Ingall, whose company was responsible for the Spinningfields developments, described the whole project as a “massive challenge”.

“ People told us Spinningfields was too ambitious, that it wouldn’t work,” he said. “But clearly it has, and over the last five years we’ve actually managed to make a place there. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s very corporate. But it is a place and it succeeds.

“St John’s is actually very different. It is a neighbourhood to live in. It’s got no corporate sense of space at all. Our vision is very much a community, which gives its identity, crafted around a bonded factory, bringing creative industries in and I also think the next generation of house owners aren’t automatically deferring to the suburbs.

“I think whilst many of people were brought up in the suburbs, more and more people want  to live European cities. The idea is to build on that and to build Manchester’s first living neighbourhood.”

Ingall said the idea was to foster an integrated, though not an exclusive or gated community. Visitors will be welcomed and the residents and workers would also be part of the St John’s and Manchester community.

A sustainable high density residential scheme will provide a critical mass of residents to support the commercial, community, retail and leisure spaces and create a vibrant, diverse and integrated village community, he said.

The first phase of the St John’s plan is targeted for completion by 2018 with the second phase starting 2018. Allied London will only take ownership of the land for Trinity Islands in 2018, so the earliest the whole scheme will be complete is likely to be 2021/22.