The Mayfield Partnership has reached agreement to fund the first phase of development at the 24-acre central Manchester site with U+I’s parent company Landsec.
The agreement allows the joint venture, which consists of U+I, Manchester City Council, Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and LCR, to begin drawing down land from an agreed first phase on the south side of the site that could deliver more than 800,000 sq ft of mixed-use space with a potential GDV of £400m.
Two office buildings totalling 320,000 sq ft and a 581-space multi-storey car park will be delivered on the first plots and subject to a number of work streams being completed Landsec/U+I could be on site next year, with delivery of the first buildings – the 76,000 sq ft Poulton office building and a new car park – expected to take around 24 months to complete.
Peter Hawthorne, CEO of LCR, said: “This is a landmark moment for the Mayfield Partnership that allows us to continue the significant momentum we have already built with the project. Following the completion of our 6.5-acre public park earlier this summer, this deal presents us with an opportunity to start building at Mayfield with energy. We are very pleased to have a deal in place that means we can move at some pace to deliver enhanced public value to the surrounding community.”
Mike Hood, chief executive of U+I, added: “We are extremely proud of the work we have done with our partners at Mayfield to design a truly sustainable, mixed-use regeneration scheme for this important site in Manchester.
“We are excited by the opportunity to deliver the next phase of our scheme, continuing our commitment to the project and to the city of Manchester. The opportunity to work with our colleagues at Landsec to fund this first phase of development at Mayfield is significant progress on a strategy to unlock our wider mixed-use regeneration portfolio and is a big step forward in our mission to become the best mixed-use regeneration investor and developer in the UK.”
Cllr Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “The opportunity we created when the Mayfield Partnership was established was to bring significant change to this part of the city centre site that had sat under-used for too long.
“This deal is consistent with our long-term ambitions for Mayfield and is a natural next step from the delivery of the beautiful new park we completed this summer, which has created a green heart to the Mayfield regeneration area and was the first step towards this new neighbourhood – transforming the space between Ardwick Green and Piccadilly. The chance to start building is a major move forward in our plan to create sustainable homes, jobs and a whole new leisure quarter at Mayfield.”
Mike Mellor, head of commercial and real estate at TfGM said: “Mayfield will be one of the greenest urban development schemes in the UK. Its location right next to Piccadilly Station and proximity to the centre of Manchester provides us with an opportunity to build a new part of the city with sustainable transport at its heart.”
The Mayfield site will deliver more than 1.5m sq ft of office space, more than 1,500 homes and a significant amount of food, leisure and retail space, in addition to more than 13-acres of public green space.
