The first This City development encapsulates a lot of what we’re looking to achieve…affordable, low carbon, close to great transport routes…and with a range of housing types and sizes to accommodate different demand – including family homes.
Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of the Council
The ambition is that This City will scale up to build 500 homes a year and six further sites are currently being considered for development in the coming years.
Find out more about This City.
No 1 Ancoats Green will overlook a transformed Ancoats Green, with the development site linking seamlessly into the improved city centre park. This will include new walking and cycling routes through the neighbourhood, new wildflower and wetland planting and a range of new trees, as well as new accessible play equipment and open grassed areas.
Next door to the park, the Ancoats Mobility Hub celebrated its own topping out milestone earlier this year. The innovative concept will help create a low traffic, pedestrian first neighbourhood and offer a host of features from secure parking for 150 bikes, changing facilities, electric vehicle charging points and a range of car parking choices.
The building itself has been designed with sustainable features including rooftop solar panels and living green walls. It will also offer centralised post and packaging services as a traffic reducing measure and potentially new commercial or hospitality space.
Find out more about the regeneration of Ancoats
In support of this latest milestone, Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of the Council, said:
“The first This City development encapsulates a lot of what we’re looking to achieve when it comes to building new homes in the city centre.
“Affordable, low carbon, close to great transport routes, built seamlessly into a rejuvenated Ancoats Green park – and with a range of housing types and sizes to accommodate different demand – including family homes.
“Hitting the highest point is a welcome milestone and marks the hump of this project and we look forward to these homes welcoming the first residents next year.”
Cllr Gavin White, executive member for housing and development, said:
“This City is the innovation that Manchester’s housing market needs to help us deliver genuinely affordable housing – capped at the Manchester Living Rent – using brownfield, Council-owned land. These are the types of homes we know our residents need and in a city centre location. This development – complemented by the improvements to the park next door – is spearheading the final phase of regeneration for Ancoats that begins the end of two decades of investment in this community.”
Adam White, Chair of This City, expressed his thanks to those involved in the project and said: “Topping out our No. 1 Ancoats Green scheme marks a really important milestone for This City, proving the concept and our ability to deliver high quality, low carbon and affordable homes at scale.
“Our exciting plans for the future will see us ramping up the delivery of our sizeable residential pipeline over the next few years, delivering hundreds more affordable homes available at the Manchester Living Rent.
“I’d like to thank City Council Officers and Members, the This City Board, DLUHC, Wates, Buttress and the wider project team for all their input and efforts to date – No. 1 Ancoats Green is a seminal project for This City and one we should all be proud to have played a part in delivering.”
The No.1 Ancoats Green development is being built by Wates with a focus on creating real Social Value through the construction process.
Tom Maguire, project director at Wates, said: “The Rodney Street project encompasses everything we stand for at Wates – exemplary design that prioritises sustainability, delivered in a way that helps communities thrive in the long term through Social Value initiatives and the homes it will ultimately provide.
“So far here at Rodney Street, we’ve spent more than £50k on local Social Enterprises and over £5m on local supply chains, as well as supported 315 Apprenticeship Weeks. While we celebrate this latest milestone of topping out, we’re focused still on delivering the rest of the project in the same way, creating opportunities wherever possible to benefit Manchester residents and businesses.”
Contents of this article were correct at time of press.
