Dec
Last week we took a drive around Manchester, Salford and Trafford to see if we could find any new residential developments as most have dried up since the 2009 financial crash.
On the western edge of the city centre we spotted the large concrete frame building on River Street still sitting empty (and probably will for years) and over in Castlefield the unfinished section of Crosby Homes’ Potato Wharf has been covered with a large photographic skin of what it will (hopefully) look like. (Maybe they’ll call it a potato skin!).
The east-side of the city centre is pretty quiet, Greenquarter is finished and the only construction is the new Co-Op buildings (rebranded Noma by some PR wag). So we drive around the ring road and over to Salford Quays, which really seems to be moving up a gear. There’s a Morrissons under construction on Trafford Road and directly opposite someone from the council thought it would be a good idea to demolish the lovely Salford Central United Reformed Church. What a shame.
But not every historic building is facing the axe. Driving back from Salford Quays into central Manchester along the Chester Road we noticed an interesting building site. We grabbed our camera, took some photographs and nipped back to the office to do some digging on Google.
Apparently the development will be called Trafford Press and it’s a part new-build, part-conversion of an Art Deco 1930s warehouse. The original facade is clearly visible in our photographs below, as is the new-build section at the rear of the development on Wright Street. We’ve checked Trafford Council’s planning departments and it appears the original facade will be kept and 116 new-build apartments constructed behind it. The site will include on-site parking, bike storage and retail units on the ground floor.
We’re not sure who the developer is, but we’ll keep on digging – watch this space!