It seems like Manchester is in a construction boom without end. Every year, new towers pop-up — each taller than the last — promising the latest in luxury for the residents, hotel guests, or office workers who will end up occupying them.
Even the pandemic could not stop the boom. So, it will not come as any great surprise that in 2023, the property industry expects more buildings to sprout up across the city.
Variety is the key word in 2023, however. The Manchester Evening News has compiled a list of the major developments starting and finishing in the next 12 months.
READ MORE: City's skyline set to change even more with new Greengate towers
On the list include two huge new music venues, a wave of new social housing, offices to accompany a park, a hatful of public realm works - and as usual, more residential building. So, here are the 11 developments which the MEN believe will change the city in 2023.
Co-op Live
After years of hype, excitement, and buzz — it is here. Manchester’s newest venue is set to open in December 2023, and when it does it’ll be the UK’s largest indoor arena with 23,500 seats.
Developers OVG say it will house ‘100 nights of music’ every year , with its CEO, Tim Leiweke, adding he believes that the Arena will add to the city centre. That's even though it is next to the Etihad.
“We’re a mile from Piccadilly station and all the urban living and residential that is in between and which is moving towards the campus,” he said. “We don’t want to suck the air of the downtown, we want to compliment it.”
4 Angel Square
Staying with Co-op, Angel Square is now home to the group’s headquarters. Its spaceship-esque mothership, 1 Angel Square will soon be joined by more offices.
Confusingly, they are called 4 Angel Square — but less confusing is the green impact of the workspaces. The 200,000 sq ft facility will have an 100 percent renewable energy supply, making it the first operational Net Zero workspace on the market in the north west when it opens.
It will be 11 storeys tall, and has ‘a hotel lobby style reception with space for flexible working. A double-height pedestrianised colonnade, aligned with a new public route through New Century from Sadler's Yard, connects the new building to the existing NOMA community.
Downing
No, they’re not uprooting Rishi Sunak — this new mixed-use development starts work in 2023, and will finish sometime the year after. Downing, on First Street, will comprise a 45-storey tower, which is enough for 5,000 bedrooms.
Those 5,000 bedrooms will range from five-bed apartments, to private studios — but the majority will be one and two beds. That’s not the only element of Downing, which takes design inspiration from the gasworks on-site.
No, it also includes a 3,000 sq ft cafe and 14,000 sq ft gym in its amenity building which will be open to the public. On top of that, 140 trees will be planted to improve the area’s greenery.
Mayfield
Manchester city centre saw its first new park opened in more than 100 years in September as part of the Mayfield development near Piccadilly Station. Since then, a £400m deal has been struck so that work on the first phase of the development around the new park can start towards the end of 2023.
This phase of the plan for the south side of the city centre site includes two office buildings with 320,000 sq ft and a 581-space multi-storey car park. A 24-month building programme is scheduled for the 76,000 sq ft Poulton office block and the car park while another office block called The Republic is also planned in this phase of the project which was approved in early 2020.
The overall masterplan for Mayfield includes more than 1.5m sq ft of office space and 1,500 homes as well as food, leisure and retail facilities and more than 13-acres of green space, including the newly opened Mayfield Park.
Factory International
After years of delays, Manchester's new flagship art centre is finally set to open in June with a programme of events already announced and on sale. The arts centre which is being built on the former Granada TV Studios site is anticipated to attract up to 1.15m visitors a year when it opens in the summer.
The unique building at the heart of the St John's regeneration area will be the permanent home of Manchester International Festival with events planned all year round, contributing an estimated £1.1bn to the economy over a decade. But the major project, which is being funded mostly by the government and Arts Council England, has seen its budget almost double since its conception.
In October, Manchester council agreed to put another £25m towards the project which was initially due to be done by 2019, but faced some setbacks. Now, Factory International is looking to sell the naming rights for the £210m facility in the hope that this will cover some of the extra costs of the project.
St Michael's
Gary Neville's long-awaited city centre development has also suffered a series of setbacks over the years, but the scheme finally got going in January 2022. The first phase of the St Michael's development off Deansgate includes a nine-storey office building on the former Bootle Street Police station site.
In the new year, work on the 40-storey tower featuring a five-star hotel is set to start after the former footballer's firm Relentless struck a deal with Salboy. As part of the plans, which include a new public square with food, drink and entertainment, the Sir Ralph Abercromby pub is set to be fully refurbished.
However, the city centre's only synagogue is set to be demolished to make way for the £200m development which has been many years in the making. The Manchester Reform Synagogue at Jackson's Row held its final service at the 70-year-old building in November after agreeing to a £15m sale in 2021.
Boddingtons Brewery
For more than 200 years, Boddingtons brewery in Strangeways was one of Manchester's most famous brands – but now the site has been transformed. In September, Manchester College's new £93m city centre campus opened.
And in 2023, work on more than 450 homes - most of which will be affordable - could start with plans to appoint a contractor in the first quarter of the year. Latimer, the development arm of Clarion Housing Group is set to turn the site which has been used as a car park for more than a decade into new housing.
Plans were approved in March when the 35-month construction programme was expected to start in the summer, but a contractor is yet to be appointed. Since then, Manchester council has announced its intentions to redevelop the Strangeways area which could see the prison close and shops on the city's infamous Counterfeit Street bulldozed as part of a major police operation.
Victoria North
Developers say it is the biggest urban regeneration project in the North of England – and work on 20-year project worth £4bn is now well under way. The vision for the area north of Victoria Station is to build 15,000 new homes - of which around a fifth would be affordable - as well as a new city river park.
In 2022, work began on the first major regeneration of Collyhurst in 50 years with the Far East Consortium (FEC) and Manchester council breaking ground on two of the seven neighbourhoods planned as part of the project in October. Work is also under way on schemes in the Red Bank neighbourhood where more than 4,000 homes are planned as well as a new park along the River Irk.
Closer to the city centre, the New Cross Central scheme is almost complete with the first residents to occupy the 80 homes in the early part of the year. Further plans for the 155-hectare site are expected to be put forward in 2023, including three plots along Dantzic Street earmarked for around 1,500 homes.
Great Jackson Street
Dubbed the 'skyscraper district', this part of the city centre has plenty more developments planned with one new tower to be completed in the new year. Joining the huge towers already up at Deansgate Square - which is home to Manchester's tallest - several new residential blocks are planned in the area.
The Blade, a 52-storey residential tower which promises to be one of the city's 'most distinctive' landmarks, should be completed in the second half of 2023. Plans for two 51-storey buildings for the Plot F site at Great Jackson Street with a total of 988 apartments between them were also approved in 2022.
Altogether, more than 6,300 homes are planned in the new neighbourhood being developed by Renaker which is also building a new school on the site. Building work on the 210-place Crown Street Primary School is now well under way and the first pupils are expected through its doors in September 2024.
Trinity Islands
A nine-year project to build four skyscrapers - including one which would be the second tallest building in the city - were given the green light in February. The apartment blocks, ranging from 39 to 60 storeys in height, are planned for two parcels of land on the banks of the River Irwell known as Trinity Islands.
The 'elegant' buildings featuring 1,950 flats would be located on land between Regent Road, Liverpool Road and Water Street which is currently a car park. Nearly two-thirds of the site off Trinity Way will be turned into green space which will be twice the size of Cathedral Gardens and open to the public.
Work on the £741m scheme is set to progress in 2023.
Ancoats Mobility Hub
In the summer, a funding package of more than £30m was agreed for the final phase of the regeneration of Ancoats, paving the way for more development. The £32.7m package will fund the 'revitalisation' of public spaces and infrastructure improvements in the area including a new 'mobility hub'.
The 'innovative' mobility hub will provide car parking, electric vehicle charging points, local car and bike clubs, a cycle hub, café and delivery hub for the local area, and will sit within a public square that links directly to Ancoats Green. The work, which was set to start in the second half of the year and be finished by 2026, would see a connected network of streets and new spaces created.
The funding, which mostly comes from Homes England, is also expected to attract additional private investment of around £450m for 1,500 new homes. The public realm work, which includes the mobility hub, is set to start in 2023.
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