ONCE the beating heart of Italian Ancoats’ ice cream trade and later practice space to icons the Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets, a £12m transformation of one of the city’s historic gems reaches a milestone this week.
Manchester developers northerngroup are topping out on a scheme in Ancoats that will renovate a warehouse, affectionately known as the Ice Plant in homage to the ice making factory that used to be next door. This development will make a major contribution to the creation of a bustling village atmosphere in the city’s one-time industrial hub.
Overlooking the new Cutting Room Square and the former St Peter’s Church, this mixed use scheme – which has received funding from the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) – will house 82 of the city’s highest specification apartments, featuring designer kitchens and bathrooms. There will be five state of the art penthouses, including one with a sauna, as well as space for five ground level retail/ commercial units.
The warehouse façade will be restored and three new blocks, including an eight-storey tower on the site of the old ice factory, built around a central glass atrium comprise the rest of the scheme.
Ancoats based northerngroup, began investing in the area back in the mid nineties, well ahead of other investors and they have stayed the course, with their most recent scheme, the 136 apartment Flint Glass Wharf (2 minutes walk from Ice Plant) completing earlier this year. Investing despite the recession they have provided jobs for over 100 local construction workers and apprentices via their construction arm, northerngroup build.
Director Nathan Ezair said: “We are striving to create the highest specification apartments in Manchester. It is the attention to detail that counts and we want to be associated with the quality living that this scheme will deliver. The Ice Plant has a great history and we are thrilled to be bringing it into an exciting new era and helping Ancoats regain its neighbourhood feel. northerngroup and northerngroup build are rightly proud of their achievements to date on this complex and challenging project.”
Eddie Smith, chief executive of New East Manchester said: “It’s good to see another Ancoats development nearing completion. It’s great to have developers like northerngroup breathing new life into the area by sensitively transforming a wonderful building that are so much part of Manchester’s history.”
Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the NWDA said: “It’s great to see new people and businesses rejuvenating this historical building and to see it being saved for future generations. The Ice Plant is a part of Ancoats’ industrial and modern heritage and the completion is an important step forward in the continuing regeneration of the area. Projects such as this underline the high quality of Ancoats and will help to attract further private sector interest and investment.”
Deborah McLaughlin, HCA director for the North West, said, “It is great to see this iconic building being brought back into productive use. The scheme will deliver high quality, new homes quickly and builds on the effort and resource that has already gone into the area to enhance the local community.”
The former ice making factory was pivotal to the ice cream barrow industry which flourished in Ancoats at the turn of the 20th century as well as providing for the old Smithfield market.
Its enviable location on the public square presents opportunities for cafes, restaurants and leisure while its apartments are a new blueprint for city centre living. Gone is the laminate flooring and visible kitchen appliances which typify many new-build apartments. Instead, Ice Plant apartments will benefit from quality ceramic flooring, fully integrated sleek kitchens and designer bathrooms.
Ice Plant is due for completion in March 2011.
northerngroup build are delighted to announce the successful completion of the iconic Ice Plant development in the heart of Ancoats Urban Village, Manchester. The complex project incorporated an existing derelict building with a modern high specification 8 story new build tower linked via an innovative glazed atrium space.
