The £90 million building would incorporate 251 hotel bedrooms over 32 storeys, on a city-centre site next to the vacant Union Bank Building near Piccadilly Station.
The proposals include conversion of the 1911 Grade II-listed former bank – which has been vacant for more than a decade and is in a state of disrepair – as part of the hotel development.
The proposed tower features an angled glass canopy roof with a rooftop restaurant and several publicly accessible spaces including a ‘net zero lifestyle museum’.
Hotel rooms would be spread across both the high-rise building and the adjoining Union Bank building.
Developer Lamington Group, which bought the site in September 2022, first revealed its plans for the high-rise building in May. It claims the building will be ‘the country’s first net zero tower’.
The site at 12-16 Piccadilly has been vacant and neglected for around 30 years, with a long history of failed projects, according to a design and access (D&A) statement.
Source:Bennetts Associates/Greig Penny (taken from planning documents)
Bennetts’ ‘net zero’ Manchester tower: Street level perspective view of the tower base and former Union Bank building from Piccadilly showing the main entrance
A previous 23 storey tower by Manchester-based stephenson hamilton risley STUDIO, housing a budget hotel for Japanese hotel group Toyoko, was granted planning permission in 2019, but was not built before consent expired last year.
In the D&A, Bennetts Associates explains its own ‘higher-quality’ hotel proposal ‘will complete the urban block by fully occupying the vacant and poor-quality gap site, provide the development with a distinctive entrance off Piccadilly and bring the former Union Bank building back into active use’.
Lamington Group said the landmark building would achieve an embodied carbon level of less than 500kgCO2e/m² and operational carbon usage of less than 90kWh/m² energy use intensity (EUI).
The developer told the AJ ‘nature-based offsets’ would then be used to reduce the scheme to net zero, adding: ‘The building will be third party-audited 12 months post-completion for confirmation of net zero and alignment to the CREEM net zero trajectory.’
A project team working on the design includes structural engineers from Price & Myers, fire engineers from Buro Happold, planning consultants from Avison Young, heritage consultants from Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture, and carbon consultant JLL.
The AJ has contacted Bennetts Associates for more information, including on the building’s proposed net zero credentials.
PROJECT DATA
Location Manchester
Local authority Manchester City Council
Type of project Aparthotel
Client Lamington Group
Architect Bennetts Associates
Planning consultant Avison Young
Structural engineer Price & Myers
M&E consultant Waterman Building Services
CDM Advisor Goddard Consultant
Principal designer Bennetts Associates
Acoustic consultant KP Acoustics
Carbon Consultant JLL
Fire Engineer Buro Happold
Heritage Consultants Stephen Levrant Heritage Architects