Key city centre schemes given planning green light

Planning applications for two key city centre schemes have been approved by Manchester City Council.A workplace campus in Pollard Street, East Manchester for small and medium-sized businesses to form, scale and thrive, was passed, as was asset manager, Aberdeen Standard Investments’ bid to redevelop 2-4 Whitworth Street West into a 152-room hotel.The Pollard Street development by creative-led developer General Projects will play a key role in the city’s economic revival from the COVID-19 pandemic, it says, not only creating 3,600 jobs, but unlocking a £5m investment in more than two acres of high-quality, accessible and safe green space and delivering significant social value benefits for the local community.Zero carbon and delivering increased biodiversity with the planting of 55 mature trees, the development in New Islington comprises five buildings surrounded by two acres of public green space with access to the Ashton Canal.The scheme will ensure more than £8m of social impact value over the next five years.Inspired by the city’s historic cotton and textile mills, the development, designed by architects HawkinsBrown and landscape architects Planit.IE, aims to set a new standard in the built environment for sustainability.Meanwhile, the Aberdeen Investments scheme, working alongside Glenn Howells Architects and JLL, will inject an investment of more than £17m into the Whitworth Street West area to construct a mixed-use seven-storey building comprising retail and food and drink outlets at ground level, with the hotel on the upper storeys.It is expected work will begin in Summer 2021.The hotel has potential to welcome more than 90,000 visitors per year spending an estimated £8.1m in the local economy, which is equivalent to an annual GVA contribution of £2.7m.JLL act as planning consultant and project manager for the development.