Canopus l Greengate l 165m & 111m l 46 and 31 floors l Cancelled

[jrb]

Bashar Issa has confirmed two towers, one 40 stories and the other 25 stories will be built on a section of the Greengate site. The rest of the proposal will include a seven-storey hotel and an eight-storey residential podium.

The full article is below.

After years of largely behind-the-scenes work on planning, young property entrepreneur Bashar Issa will next month submit his detailed planning application for the Canopus scheme in Salford.

The project knits into Ask Developments’ Exchange Greengate and features towers up to 40 storeys tall. So confident is Issa of planning consent that contractors are already on site.

‘We’re 10 metres underground already,’ he says. Canopus was originally conceived around a 62-storey skyscraper, but Issa had to settle for 40 floors in the face of objections from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

‘I don’t know why, but CABE just felt it was not really the best place for a tower of that size,’ says Issa. His £200m scheme was revised and is set for planning approval in late October. Canopus will sit next to the five-star Lowry Hotel, a short walk from Deansgate, Spinningfields and Manchester Cathedral.

Issa’s firm, BSC, which stands for British Standard Consultancy, will transform land bounded by New Bridge Street, the River Irwell and Greengate with a family of buildings around Greengate Square.

A seven-storey hotel, eight-storey residential podium and towers of 25 and 40 storeys will contain more than 400 homes – including 150 apartment-hotel units – 220 hotel rooms, 300 car parking spaces, and 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sq m) of offices and retail, with the balance towards retail.

A further 700 car parking spaces on 2.5 acres (1 ha) of Salford City Council’s land will be replaced elsewhere if plans to turn it into landscaped gardens are also approved.

‘We are structuring a deal with the council to relocate surface car parking on their land to put parking in new buildings and use the land for open landscaping, both hard and soft,’ explains Issa.

Urban landscape

All the Canopus buildings will be on 1.25 acres (0.5 ha) acquired from investor Oakglade Properties 12 months ago. BSC’s involvement in the site began five years ago with an option to acquire the land from Oakglade subject to outline planning consent.

Planning permission was granted in 2000 and renewed in 2004. It is no wonder Issa is keen to get started.

‘We have been on site for three months and as soon as we get planning we will build it out in one,’ he says.

Issa has already made a splash with plans for the residential Sarah Tower in Piccadilly. Both Sarah Tower and Canopus are named after his wife, Canopus being the name of the second brightest star in the sky and translating into Arabic as Souhail, his wife’s maiden name.

It is no doubt that family is important to Issa, 28, whose father and uncle built up various commercial interests, chiefly steel mills in China. Previous property ventures by the family include hotels in the south of France and Middle East.

Issa, who lives in Manchester, sees his own emerging portfolio as quite distinct from that of his family. As well as UK schemes he is currently pursuing a series of acquisitions in the US, starting in August with the Statler Towers in Buffalo, New York State.

Back in Manchester, his emerging portfolio of residential schemes includes projects in Ancoats and the Northern Quarter. Give it a couple of more years and the name Canopus will need no introduction – and nor will Issa.

For further information on the proposal and renders, please see the Greengate thread.

PS. Yes, I know there is a Greengate thread already, but the Canopus proposal deserves it's own thread. The planning application will be available to view shortly (October) and construction will commence straightaway once planning permission is hopefully approved. So this thread will be needed sooner rather than later.

[andysimo123]

Well the fact is they have already started, so whats 40 stories 120-140 meters? Possible the 2nd tallest building in Manchester/Salford is already going up.

[chasedwar]

I just new that this scheme would go ahead, projects that make it onto the mipim model tend to get built ;

[andysimo123]

We knew it would go ahead ages ago becase theres they started digging abig hole where the buildings are going to be built. Anyone got any pics?

[caw123]

Originally Posted by chasedwar

I just new that this scheme would go ahead, projects that make it onto the mipim model tend to get built ;

Theres no Canopus model on there, though.

[jrb]

Double post

[jrb]

Originally Posted by andysimo123

We knew it would go ahead ages ago becase theres they started digging abig hole where the buildings are going to be built. Anyone got any pics?

Andy, we've seen, read, and heard lots of things about the proposed height of the main tower, but this is the first real conformation that it will be 40 stories tall.

There are various pictures and renders of the proposal on the Greengate thread, but as far as we know, those may, or may not be the final designs?(probably not) We'll just have to wait until later this month when the revised plans are submitted and are available online.

The fact that BSC and their architects are working with SCC, CABE, and ASK on the revised Canopus proposal, will hopefully ensure that we end up with a much improved proposal.

[woodhousen]

is this that scheme that loks (not meaning to sound derogitory) but the ones that look like a 60's/communist block?

[jrb]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

is this that scheme that looks (not meaning to sound derogitory) but the ones that look like a 60's/communist block?

Yep, you mean like 95% of Birmingham's skyline. Only joking mate.

I'll hold fire until the final design/s are availabe for viewing online. Late October hopefully.

[woodhousen]

oph right, thats cool...... i was just going on that one render, and you gotta admit..... but hey, im used to it lol...u no, as birmingham is full of em

[SleepyOne]

Thanks for the article jrb. I have my doubts that BSC will start this on receiving planning permission. Bashaar Issa seems to be a master of PR but less adept at getting proposals out of the ground. Here's a bit of info that I posted in the Greengate thread back in June.....

For anyone having trouble visualising it, take a look at the Fielden Clegg Greengate masterplan. Its basic form is faithful to the masterplan. It comprises two L-shaped podium pieces with the towers arranged on the part of the podium that runs along the proposed park and terminates on the River Irwell where the tallest tower is situated.

RED - Spectrum (U/C)

BLUE - Abito (U/C)

PURPLE - "Greengate" Towers, BSC Proposal



[img]http://i1.************/1zofdc6.jpg[/img]
GREENGATE MATERPLAN






VIEW OF GREENGATE FROM HARVEY NICHOLS! (New tower proposal the more feint outline).

[jrb]

The hole. Saturday.

[Manchester Planner]

Nice pond.

So the moment this gets planning permission we will officially have a 40 storey skyscraper under construction?

If so, that's awesome. All we need now is for Albany and Eastgate to start on the other end of the city centre and then we're back in form!

[Manchester Planner]

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/bdbsea...ity=Manchester

needs updating - CAW, can you do this?

[caw123]

Originally Posted by Manchester Planner

http://www.skyscrapernews.com/bdbsea...ity=Manchester

needs updating - CAW, can you do this?

I could. If I could be arsed.

[Ozzy]

Anyone know the date of the decision??

[jrb]

Originally Posted by Ozzy

Anyone know the date of the decision??

Late October apparently.

[Ozzy]

Jrb got to thank you for all your hard work on here, if it was'nt for your i would'nt know half the things going on in manchester!

[Chogmook]

here, here!

[Local Lad]

Haha. Those diggers have not moved since i took a picture from the same place, on the 7th of October, gotta love BSC.