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Case study


Joining the Tribe


Three derelict tower blocks were transformed into a highly sustainable PRS scheme providing 192 high-spec homes in central Manchester. Teodora Lyubomirova explores the refurbishment


A


local eyesore and a vivid symbol of urban decay, three disused brick-clad high-rise buildings marred the views over Manchester’s Ancoats neighbourhood for more than two decades.


The 13-storey pre-cast concrete towers were erected in the 1950s and


once provided council homes. At the time, the area’s days as an industrial powerhouse had largely ceased and social decline was rife. Few decades later, the buildings had fallen into such a severe state of


disrepair that Manchester City Council was forced to shut them in 1994. Since then, the neglected towers, known as Chippenham Court, Saltford Court and Rodney Court, had become vermin-infested, drawing complaints from local residents about the hundreds of pigeons living in the blocks and various anti-social incidents taking place. “They were close to people’s homes and had become a bit of an anti- social hotspot,” recalls Andrew Smith, project lead and director at architecture firm Pozzoni who worked on redesigning and repurposing the blocks. “The windows were in some cases missing, smashed and damaged, regular fires had been burnt, all of the mechanical and electrical systems had been stripped down, the lifts were vandalised and inoperable, door sets were gone, and there was substantial graffiti to every part of the building. The external areas were also substantially overgrown.”


Single block ownership


Leases for the three blocks – today standing tall as Tribe Apartments – were first acquired by developer Urban Splash circa 2006, but the firm abandoned its plans to restore the towers as a result of the recession. With no visible progress made six years after the acquisition, the council terminated the company’s lease and the buildings’ future laid uncertain. However, in October 2013, a joint venture between developer


Rowlinson Construction and businessman Nigel Rawlings’ Housing Capital Trust (HCT) acquired the leases for the derelict blocks from the council with the idea to not only revamp the three buildings, but to also bring a new model of PRS operations to Manchester – single block ownership, meaning the three towers will be retained by a single landlord. Rawlings, who has a solid background in property having been the chief


executive of Assura, the UK’s largest owners of healthcare property, and is a part time finance director at development group Pochin’s, admitted: “It was


Key dates


August 2013 – Initial feasibility February 2014 – Start on site April 2015 – Completion May 2015 – Project came into use


All photographs © www.nudgepoint.com


“One of the biggest challenges was to visualise what the blocks could be, because they were in such a bad state of disrepair”


evident to me in 2012 that there was a shortage of accommodation available for rent in Manchester. At the same time it was clear that a new asset class, being residential property professionally managed under single block ownership, would develop in the UK just as it is the norm in other countries. The Tribe blocks had been derelict for many years and I could not resist the challenge to bring them back into use.” Rowlinson Construction and HCT were backed by private equity firm


Cabot Square Capital, which invested £8.4m to kick-start the scheme, and the project also secured a £7.9m Build to Rent loan from the Homes and Communities Agency. With the funding secured, the partnership turned to the design brief, with the onus to transform the towers into contemporary accommodation that is relatively easy to maintain and can set a standard for sustainable refurbishment.


‘Outstanding’ design


“One of the biggest challenges was to visualise what the blocks could be, because they were in such a bad state of disrepair,” said Smith. Before commencing the refurbishment, the blocks and the surrounding area had to be decontaminated including thorough asbestos removal, and their


www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMM May 2017 | 21


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