Manchester City Council Item 12 Planning and Highways Committee 10 April 2014 Application Number Date of Appln Committee Date Ward 104802/FO/2014/C1 3rd Feb 2014 10 Apr 2014 City Centre Ward Proposal Construction of a new 8 storey 290 bed hotel with ground floor restaurant (Class A3) and shop unit (Class A1) with 25 basement parking spaces are rooftop plant area following partial demolition of existing buildings. Location Commercial Buildings , 11-15 Cross Street, Manchester, M2 1WE Applicant Mr Dominic Pozzoni , HS 606 Limited, Alliance House, Westpoint Enterprise Park, Clarence Avenue, Manchester, M17 1QS Agent Mr Keith Hamilton, Stephenson:ISA Studio Limited, 3 Riverside Mews, 4 Commercial Street, Manchester, M15 4RQ Description The application relates to a 0.125 hectare site bounded by Cross Street, Newmarket, Pall Mall and Back Pool Fold. It is occupied by a 5/6 storey office building that was constructed in the 1980s behind a retained facade on Cross Street with 2 ground floor shop units fronting Cross Street and basement parking accessed from Newmarket. The offices are split into 3 interconnecting buildings with 3 separate entrances from Cross Street, Newmarket and Pall Mall respectively. Vacancy levels within the building are currently at 88% with the ground floor retail units and the central office building on Newmarket Street occupied but the upper levels of the Pall Mall Street and Cross Street buildings being vacant. The site is within the Central Business District which, in addition to a large concentration of offices, contains shops, bars, restaurants and some residential. The site is opposite the Royal Exchange and the Arndale Shopping Centre. It is within the Upper King Street Conservation Area and is adjacent to a number of historic buildings of which four are grade 2 Listed - The Royal Exchange, Princes Chamber, Alliance House and The Stock Exchange. Building styles, scale and massing vary in the adjacent area and historic buildings are adjoined by larger, generally taller, contemporary developments. This can be seen particularly on Market Street and King Street. The majority of the historic buildings are generally 3-4 storeys and the tallest buildings in the area are Pall Mall Court on King Street at 11 storeys and the Arndale tower at 21 storeys that are now part of the setting of heritage assets in the area. Buildings in the area around the application site feature a wide range of high quality materials such as stone, red brick, terracotta and faience are present in the area. Vertical, sash windows that are generally set back from the external face of the building, predominate in the area enhancing the design of the facades whilst creating shadows. Contemporary buildings such as the Arndale Centre are built in a range of more modern materials that contrast those of the more historic buildings. Description of the Proposals. 117 Manchester City Council Item 12 Planning and Highways Committee 10 April 2014 The proposed building would be 8 storeys, containing a 290 bed hotel with a ground floor restaurant, shop unit, 25 basement parking spaces and a rooftop plant area. The proposal would reuse the existing basement and ground level structure and retain the Cross Street façade (previously retained as part of the 1987 development ) as well as a decorative stone door surround located on Pall Mall. The building would incorporate a traditional tri-partite appearance with a large 2 storey base expressed by large windows aligning with the existing base on Cross Street. There would be a 4 storey middle section and a 2 storey roof. The building would be constructed from pre cast panels with the elevations featuring simple vertical bands to accentuate deep set windows which are intended to be a sympathetic, but contemporary, response to the architectural features of the retained façade and other historic buildings in the area. The use of large expanses of glass at ground floor level would animate the adjacent street scene to all elevations. The hotel and retail unit would be accessed off Cross Street whilst the Class A3 unit would have its own access off Pall Mall. Servicing would take place from an existing loading bay on Pall Mall and vehicles would enter the basement via Newmarket Street. In support of the overall redevelopment of the site the applicants have stated that the development would: Encourage greater numbers of people to part of the city which is attractive to visitors; Meet an identified deficiency of hotel space around the application site; Replace an existing building that is unviable in terms of business operations, due to its age and internal layout. Boost local economic performance; provide approximately 140 FTE jobs once operational as well as additional indirect jobs via hotel supply chains; Achieve a BREEAM rating of at least 'very good' which is considerably better than the current dated building and helps to contribute towards the city's overall energy efficiency targets. That the proposals are fully funded subject to planning permission being granted. Environmental Impact Assessment - The proposal does not fall within Schedules 1 or 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (as amended 2011) and as such did not meet the requirement for a screening opinion to be carried out as part of the application process. Consultations Publicity - The occupiers of adjacent premises have been notified about the application and it has been advertised in the local press as a major development, 118 Manchester City Council Item 12 Planning and Highways Committee 10 April 2014 affecting the setting of a listed building and the setting of a conservation area; Site notices have also been placed adjacent to the application site. One letters of objection has been received from a business with premises on St Ann's Square, Market Street and Marsden Street objecting on the basis of an increase in traffic / levels of activities, noise levels, disruption to businesses and destruction within the construction phase. Manchester Conservation Area and Historic Buildings Panel - The Panel was supportive of the retention of the Victorian stone facade to Cross Street. The Panel noted that, while the existing built form behind is very much a product of its time and of not of high significance, it does reflect a particular approach towards conservation, does not dominate the Cross Street frontage while also responding to its internal floor levels, and aims to respect the conservation area setting including the characteristic manner in which it turns the Newmarket/Pall Mall street corner. The proposed design was considered to be far less successful and the drawn evidence does not support the applicant's assertion that the design incorporates a tripartite division of the elevation typical of many larger Manchester buildings. While the contemporary design of the proposed built form with strong vertical rhythm of its own was appreciated in its own right by some Panel members, it was acknowledged that the new-build element would include significant elements of blank elevation and would slam into the Victorian elevation with misaligned floor levels and no response to the elevation rhythm. This unfortunate mismatch between the two elements would be emphasised by the proposed extensive use of white render and this rejection of more characteristic materials, such as brick, was considered unfortunate. White render would be uncharacteristic and have a considerable negative impact on the particular character of the streets in this locality arising from the narrower streets and darker materials, and could bring issues regarding maintenance and longevity as it would be expected to quickly deteriorate in the Manchester climate. In addition, the Panel noted that the roofline detailing would not be as crisp as shown once it had been detailed for functional purposes and considered the handling of the Newmarket/Pall Mall corner to be clumsy. It was noted that the height of the building would be higher than the existing and, unlike the existing built form, the proposed building would be seen as a backdrop rising above the more modestly scaled historic Chapel Walks buildings that currently terminate views along Cheapside. This would significantly and unacceptably alter this conservation area view that should be protected. The scale of the new built form should also be lower or set back so as to maintain the existing building as the visible built form when viewed from Cross Street. In conclusion the Panel felt that a more modest proposal in a different material and elevation articulation would have a more acceptable impact on the character of the conservation area including upon views and the relationship of the retained and proposed built forms. English Heritage - State that the replacement building whilst between one and two storeys higher than the existing building would be reasonably consistent in height and massing to the established grain of the conservation area and would provide a positive response to the site context without overwhelming adjoining buildings. Given 119 Manchester City Council Item 12 Planning and Highways Committee 10 April 2014 the above overall the proposals should make a positive contribution to the conservation area. However they do recommend some modest amendments and refining of details as follows: The precise detailing of the proposed glass reinforced concrete cladding, with buff aggregate, will require care to ensure a subtle transition from the stone front elevation; The depth of the reveals should provide sufficient 3-D modelling to create depth, shadow and interest to the Newmarket and Pall Mall elevations; The vertical bays to the Pall Mall elevation could be realign to sit more comfortably with the more regular vertical rhythm of the adjoining listed warehouse; They also comment that pre- application advice recommended that further research should be undertaken to establish whether the elevation originally incorporated a balustrade above the eaves and that the feature could be reinstated if the evidence was available to support such an approach and that this has not been commented on in the submission.