The long awaited redevelopment of Great Northern Warehouse has been granted planning approval. Designed by Simpson Haugh, the development will see the historic Great Northern Warehouse converted into 120,000 sq ft workspace with apartments delivered across the Leisure Box site via 34, 27, and 16-storey new-build towers. This is an ambitious project to substantially rework and invigorate the Great Northern area in Manchester.

Civic Engineers have provided engineering advice for the scheme over the last 6 years to get to this point in collaboration with Trilogy Real Estate and Peterson Group, and a large professional team.

The site is rich in industrial heritage incorporating the remnants of a Victorian railway viaduct and underground canal. The warehouse was bizarrely converted to a multi-story car park several decades ago and the project will restore this building into a more appropriate use.

The work carried out on the Leisure Box will be a partial demolition scheme, involving the reuse of all car park floors, and providing a new square at podium level framed by residential BTR towers and smaller buildings. At the lower levels, the proposed towers will be incorporated into the existing car park, and additional parking levels are being designed with future adaptability in mind.

New active frontages will be created along the streets in space currently occupied by multiple escape stair cores from the theatres, and a new street is being created at the rear of the Deansgate terrace. An extension is added to the rear of the Deansgate terrace to give frontage onto this street and the original buildings will be refurbished to create luxury apartments on the upper levels. The atrium will be demolished, and the viaduct used to link the warehouse workspace offering with the new square.