Milliners Wharf | Pollard Street | Phase 2 | 7 fl | Pro

[SleepyOne]

Taking a wharf on the wild side
Jill Burdett



DO a crane count in Manchester right now and you will find the biggest cluster around Ancoats.

There’s a massive building boom going on in this old industrial heartland with new homes, a new canal basin, new park and at some point a new tram link.

The towers of Islington Wharf are already rising out of the ground, work has started on Urban Splash’s Chips building, Taylor Woodrow Bryant are launching Botanic and now on the other side of the Canal bank the diggers are breaking ground for the City Lofts development Milliners Wharf.

It takes its name from the old hat factory that used to be on the site and is the firm’s fourth big scheme in the city. Their first, Vantage Quay at Piccadilly, had people camped out overnight to be first to buy, and sales and marketing director Andy Hurst said: “We are not afraid of competition. In fact, this level of building confirms that this is a great location.

“Our hallmark is a cool, contemporary design that creates clean, uncluttered living spaces that stand the test of time.

“We are committed to urban revival and take care that the architecture is sympathetic to the immediate surroundings and make a real contribution.”

Personally, I am not that excited about the exterior, a long uniform nine storey block of 261 apartments, but City Lofts do do interiors very well indeed.

They have taken out the lobby area to give more living space and while the marketing suite is not an exact replica of an apartment, it shows that the look is going to be very classy with hardwood floors, very well finished high gloss kitchens and just about the best bathrooms in town at the moment.

Two-bed apartment

Prices range from £136,000 for a 376sq ft studio, £147,000 for a one-bed, £187,000 for a two-bed apartment and £251,000 for a three-bedder, some of which go up to 971sq ft.

It’s going to be 2009 before the first ones are complete and because of that they are initially targeting investors, who are prepared to stake their money on the quality of the scheme and the potential of the area and 25 per cent of the first phase has already sold.

They are also offering furniture packs, which at £5,500 are not the cheapest in town but putting in top quality items keeps up the standard of the whole development.

Like other developers, City Lofts now take on the letting and management of apartments bought by investors through their Vivacity arm, and Hurst said: “When you have built a great building in a great location you have to look after it and everyone appreciates that, be they landlords, tenants or owner occupiers. Ancoats and the whole of New East Manchester is a phenomenon and there is massive interest in this area.

“In a few years’ time it will be a whole new community, just a mile from the city centre with its own unique feel.

“A year or two ago the Manchester market had a little pause but now demand is back as strong as ever.”

More information call Knight Frank on 0161 8775955 or visit citylofts.co.uk

..

[highriser]

The launch party was being held on Pollard St tonight , CityLoft have built a temporary sales room , looks like Ocon will be the contractors
And here's the site tonight .

[ThomH]

I went to the launch. I wasn't sure what to expect really as I don't normally go to such things but I was rather wrong-footed by quite how corporate the clientele was - pinstripes, braying, and sloaney women/dollybirds in skirt-suits all the way. Maybe naive of me to assume otherwise but this was all about schmoozing the big investors with no real sign of private buyers.

Apart from that not a huge amount to report. The model looked as per the render (I like it) and the only thing I noted was that the land between the development itself and Pollard St was earmarked for two major "future developments", one of which was shaded out as such and one of which would take up what the model had defined as a surface carpark with regimented bays.

And why do they use such crap toy cars on the models? Considering the attendence on the night and the likely inhabitants I don't think 80's style saloons is the way to go. Boxsters and Beamers all the way I say.

Interesting to note they had branded people carriers to ferry the bigwigs too and from the safety of the city centre, avoiding the great unwashed of Ancoats. I was quite happy to mosey back to Picadilly on foot, though I did become aware that the poncey branded goody bag did mark me out for deserving a mugging, or at least a good kicking.

On that note the goody bag was rubbish. More of just a bag bag really, full of brochures and no goodies whatsoever. There was a VIP wristband for an after party at Room but as it was apparent I wouldn't know a soul there (apart from the PR's who organised the event) I returned to the bosom of my family instead.

Cheers

Thom

[Craig]

Thom - goody bag was rubbish and pretentious but didn't you get a vodka miniture in yours and the 'fancy undies' brochure was surely worth flick through?

[ThomH]

No! Did I get swizzed?!

A book of scantily clad women and bottle of vodka sounds like a good night in to me...

Maybe as well as goody bags they have "baddy bags" to hand specifically to people who haven't bought a flat (or indeed bother to wear pinstripes)?

Cheers

Thom

[SleepyOne]

Milliner’s Wharf set to go on site
15 June 2007



The first phase of an £80 million mixed-use development in east Manchester by Design Group 3 Architects is due to start on site next month.

The Victoria Works scheme will provide 680 one-, two- and three- bedroom apartments, as well as 2,000sq m of commercial and retail space, on the site of a derelict mill building in the area’s regeneration zone.

Phase one, Milliner’s Wharf, is a zinc-clad building on the banks of the Ashton Canal.

A further three buildings, including a 31-storey residential tower, also by Design Group 3, make up phase two, which is due to start next spring.

Thought this was a Broadway Malyan scheme.

[Irwell]

Forgive me if I missed something, but when did it become a 31 storey tower?

[GShutty]

Yeah good point. Is that not just somebody adding the 22 + 9 stories, telling their mate 31 stories are on the way and the MEN publishing it, with next to the old image of 3 Piccadilly Place, suggesting that it will look like that......

[Goldie]

Originally Posted by GShutty

Yeah good point. Is that not just somebody adding the 22 + 9 stories, telling their mate 31 stories are on the way and the MEN publishing it, with next to the old image of 3 Piccadilly Place, suggesting that it will look like that......

Cut to MEN reporter, finishing off his vodka miniature, flicking through his free fancy undies catalogue with one hand and tapping out report with the other...

[SleepyOne]

I should have credited the story - it came from Building Design magazine, so it may have a bit more credence.

[man med]

starting to rise now

[highriser]

yeah i went past this morning 3 cores are now rising , its a hive of activity along that stretch of the canal with CHIPS and Islington Wharf .

[highriser]

Milliners Wharf coming on

[SteKnight]

Dark. Satanic.

Creating an homage to the mills you are replacing does not have to involve building something of similar monolithic and aesthetically bleak proportions.

[Irwell]

Anyone know what's going on with this? Construction seems to have stopped a while back and there's still a core with absolutely nothing around it. They just seem to have built up the metal frame around two of the three cores and stopped.

[jrb]

New apllication gone in for a 13 storey residential building on Pollard Street. Developers are. http://www.ukdata.com/numbers/03766744.html Planning portal is currently knackered.

Some serious proposal, quantity wise going in for that part of Ancoats ATM and of late.

[Irwell]

Serious quantities, yes, but some of them seem to die on their feet during construction. This one still seems to be going nowhere!

[Comdot]

Originally Posted by jrb

New apllication gone in for a 13 storey residential building on Pollard Street. Developers are. http://www.ukdata.com/numbers/03766744.html Planning portal is currently knackered.

Some serious proposal, quantity wise going in for that part of Ancoats ATM and of late.

you must be thinking of this one jerb?

i had the fortune of the planning portal working when i wanted. though it did die the other day right in the middle of me searching. fricking useless things, planning portals.

http://www.publicaccess.manchester.g...=JRWV97BC02600

Erection of two detached buildings of maximum height of thirteen storeys to accommodate 109 residential units and six commercial units (use classes A1, A2, A3 , B1 and D1) with associated landscaping, car parking and vehicular access following demolition of existing buildings and retention of existing facade to Pollard Street

Land At Pollard Street/Carruthers Street
Ancoats
Manchester
M4 7DS

Target Determination Date: 31/03/2008

Application Pending Consideration

Kamani Commercial Property LTD

Agent's Name: DPP

i'm just about to put it on skyscrapernews, so i'll get the best renders out on here.

east manc is so HOT right now

[Comdot]

some iffy photos of east mancs. none are actually on skyscrapernews because again they are too low.









(victoria works but not the main tower itself)

[Comdot]

oh got some pics of ancoats works tower site. thats not its real name i dont think it has one yet.

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/buildings.php?id=5444





and just to be arty tarty i turned the flash on