Plans for an apartment block on the site of the Chorlton Irish Club have moved one step closer.
A planning application has been made by the Southway Housing Trust to build 29 affordable apartments, with parking and bike storage, which will all be sold under shared ownership.
However, the club building itself will be untouched and there are now hopes the proceeds from the sale could be used to allow it to re-open.
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The historic building on High Lane was put up for sale last year following years of financial woes and was marketed as as an 'outstanding platform for redevelopment'.
Members feared the sale listing could be the end of the club, which was founded in the 1950s and has hosted famous names like Peter Kay and John Bishop in the past.
An independent group Friends of Chorlton Irish, made up of Irish and Irish-descendent local residents, was formed which began campaigning for the club, which they had listed as an asset of community value (ACV), to be saved.
It was announced last February that an agreement had been reached between the Trustees of the Irish Association Social Club (IASC) and Southway over its future.
The housing trust purchased only part of the car park, not the entire site.
And documents submitted in support of their planning application, made public last week, confirm that "the Irish Club itself is free to continue to operate and remains listed as an asset of community value."
It currently remains closed but a spokesman for the trustees said: “We are still in the process of working through the debts associated with the Irish Association Social Club and ensuring each valid debt is settled in full.
“Once this process is complete and we have a comprehensive understanding of the IASC’s financial position, we will turn our attention to the future of the IASC.”
Friends of Chorlton Irish are yet to comment on the plans but have previously said they wanted more transparency over the deal between the trustees and Southway and that "it would seem premature to say the club is saved just yet. "
The plans, which have been lodged with Manchester City Council and are now open for consultation, are for 19 two-bedroom and 10 one-bed apartments in a new four storey development on the site, which is bounded by Cross Road, Beech Road Park, the rear of the Irish Club, and the rear of Thornbridge Avenue.
There will also be 29 car parking spaces, seven electric vehicle chargers and 40 secure bike parking spaces, a bin store and landscaped area.
The Irish Club will retain 13 car parking spaces of its own.
Southway said a noise impact assessment had been undertaken "to identify the potential level of noise breakout from any future amplified music events which may take place in the Club, acknowledging the fact that the Irish Club could re-open in the future as a community facility capable of hosting live music and events."
However, they said: "The predicted level of amplified music from within the Club at the closest proposed apartment will be sufficiently low enough to accord with the ‘No Observed Adverse Effect Level’ as detailed in the Planning Practice Guidance."
Southway said the plans would bring into use a "large redundant" car park and create jobs locally during the construction phase.
Karen Mitchell, chief executive of Southway Housing Trust, said: “We understand the importance of the club to the area.
"As a not-for-profit organisation, our proposal has the social and economic interests of the area at its heart.
“By developing the car park area, we are providing a much-needed resource to the vendors of the club, while converting under-used brownfield land into a socially responsible scheme that will provide affordable housing for local people.”
