How the new tower near Deansgate Locks will look
A new 35-storey skyscraper opposite Deansgate Locks could get the green light this week.
The tower – on Whitworth Street West – would contain 327 apartments for private rental, a gym, cafe and a roof garden with views across the city.
It will go before planners on Thursday, but faces objections from nearby residents and bars.
The owner of Deansgate Locks bar Sugar Buddha, which has a 4am license, has warned he could be inundated with noise complaints from tenants once the block is built.
And the City Inn, which is next door, says the skyscraper will block its emergency escape route and ‘endanger lives’.
Nearby residents say they were not properly consulted on the huge tower – which they say will have a ‘huge impact’on neighbouring homes.
They also point out the block contains no parking, with developers Brigantes saying the site cannot accommodate it.
Despite those objections, planning officers are recommending the tower is approved.
They say anyone living in the new block needs to do so ‘in the full knowledge’ that there will be lots of city centre noise, including from bars.
Officers say it will have ‘some effect’ on nearby residents but not beyond that expected in a ‘city centre context’. They say it would not affect emergency escape routes form the City Inn.
Their report indicates it will not include any affordable housing.
The new proposals replace existing planning permission for an 18-storey hotel that failed to get off the drawing board due to the recesssion.
Private equity investors Ion – who were behind the original hotel plans – have teamed up with Brigantes and management company Duvet 1 to draw up proposals for private rented flats instead.
It fits with the council’s bid to boost the levels of high-quality private rental in the city, which it says is needed to meet soaring demand.
If built, the block would join what Beetham Tower architect Ian Simpson has predicted will become a ‘cluster’ of skyscrapers around the southern fringe of the city centre.
Planners have already approved the 27-storey Axis tower across the road, while the M.E.N. revealed how a ‘sister’ Beetham – nearly as tall as the original – is to finally be built next to the Mancunian Way after a three-year delay, again offering private rental.
