Liverpool-based X1 Developments have submitted plans to Salford City Council to nearly double the height of an apartment block scheme on the border of Ordsall and Salford Quays.
X1 and Knight Knox International want to build 191 one, two and three bed-flats in their ‘The Gateway’ scheme, on vacant land between Trafford Road, Archie Street and Elmira Way.
If passed, the block would tower some 62.5 metres over Trafford Road.
The site – which is currently used as overspill car parking – was previously the location for the Port of Manchester Mission to Seaman, which was built in 1901 as a reglious refuge for seafarers at Salford Docks.
Watch: Demolition at last remaining Salford Seaman’s Mission Stella Maris (2012)
Read: 1960s time capsule found in demolished Stella Maris
After the Docks closed, the branch was shut in 1977 and demolished in the early 1980s.
In November 2015 Salford City Council passed plans for 133 flats in three stepped towers, eight, 11 and 14-storeys high.
Artist’s impression of the previous 14-storey build
This permission “established the principle of the development”, but a “higher density scheme will make the most efficient use of the land”, say planning documents.
Now X1 want to increase the height of the largest tower to 21 storeys, with two others at 14 and 10 storeys.
X1 say they will not make any contribution to Section 106 planning fees as “The site lies within an area where under the adopted Supplementary Planning Document no requirement for a financial contribution from apartment schemes exists.
Also in the plans are a ground-floor retail unit, car parking and a gym.
The apartments are being marketed as “buy-to-let opportunities”.
Trafford Road was once Salford’s busiest thoroughfare, in the days before the closure of Salford Docks.
Now it’s an arterial route linking Manchester with the M602 motorway, and is mainly populated by offices, supermarkets and apartment blocks.
X1 already have permission to build The Exchange, a £13.6m block of 140 flats between Trafford Road and Elmira Way.
Building on The Gateway, subject to planning approval, is expected to start this summer.
