On the fringes of Manchester city centre, something new is happening
01.06.2024 - 06:53
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Just over a month ago, something completely unremarkable happened in Manchester - a 40-storey block of flats opened.
But the opening of Viadux, itself an impressive engineering achievement by constructing Y-shaped columns on top of a railway viaduct to support the skyscraper, did spark excitement. That enthusiasm wasn’t over its swimming pool, communal areas, or terrace with city skyline views, though.
It was about Viadux phase two — the next step in developers Salboy’s plans to regenerate the parcel of land between Beetham Tower and the G-Mex. There was good reason for that.
READ MORE: All the key developments planned for Greater Manchester
Phase two, should it receive planning permission, will build a 76-storey skyscraper containing 780 flats — the city’s new tallest building. But the point Salboy was keen to stress is that it will be accompanied by a 23-storey tower that’s entirely affordable housing.
The move represents something of a growing trend in the city centre, which is especially visible at its fringes. Manchester might be starting to build affordable homes in and around the city centre again.
These new communities will be furnished with ‘green spaces, doctors, dentists, and schools’, according to the Labour council’s housing and development lead, Coun Gavin White.
That’s because ‘we know that’s what’s needed in each area to make them successful’, he told the Manchester Evening News in a recent walkabout of Ancoats, where many of the new homes are eyed for.
It’s a grey Mancunian day when Gavin White, a self-described ‘dormant’ architect by trade who has been a councillor since 2018, begins his tour. The starting point is the This City building site on Rodney Street.
This City is the development company