Next stop: Hundreds of flats and a hotel
PLANS SUBMITTED TO CREATE NEW NEIGHBOURHOOD BY REDEVELOPING LAND AROUND THE CORNBROOK TRAM STOP
PLANS for a brand new neighbourhood next to Cornbrook interchange – including a hotel and nearly 300 flats – have been tabled.
Development giant Peel has submitted proposals in the hope of kick-starting wider development around the tram stop.
Plans being considered by Manchester council would see nearly 300 flats, a hotel and an apart-hotel.
A new cafe and a park-and-ride scheme would also be included.
Peel has submitted plans for 280 apartments in blocks of up to 15 storeys on large triangular plot of land between the interchange the A56 and Trentham Street, at the end of the site closest to the city centre.
Outline proposals have also been put in for a hotel of up to 154 bedrooms, plus a smaller aparthotel, at the other end of the plot.
That would create what Peel says will be a ‘landmark’ hotel building, able to take advantage of nearby transport connections.
As well as a car park for the hotel itself, a 47-bay park-and-ride for the Metrolink and a small cafe to sit next to the tram stop would be added.
The flats would be built following the demolition of the building currently containing the Manchester Springs car repair firm.
According to planning documents, Peel has been in negotiations for some time over the relocation of the firm, in order to ensure ‘business continuity.’
Its application for the hotel phase is currently an outline proposal and would come back to the council in more detail at a later date.
The developer’s plans would kick-start a long-mooted wave of regeneration for the area immediately around Cornbrook, currently a largely desolate vacant or industrial area that sees little in the way of footfall.
Council bosses have been drawing up plans for the district for several years – at the same time as the city centre has gradually crept outwards down the A56.
Several residential schemes have already had approval between Cornbrook interchange and town, particularly between the A56 and Ellsemere Street.
Immediately next door to Peel’s development – on Thorncross Close, off Ellsemere Street – developers DeTrafford Estates have applied to build more than 400 apartments, plus office and leisure space, under proposals still under consideration by the council.
Mulbury Homes also plan to turn an empty printing mill next to it into 108 new apartments in a development known as Excelsior.
Peel’s plans for Cornbrook are part of its wider Manchester Waters vision, which includes its highly controversial development on Pomona Island, approved in 2016.
‘Luxury’ waterside apartments at that site are currently being marketed by Knight Knox as ‘one of the last remaining large-scale regeneration projects that will truly redefine the history of Manchester.’