The developer behind several new skyscrapers in Manchester is set to borrow another £120m of public money for two more city centre schemes. Renaker has requested £54.1m for the Bankside building in Salford's Greengate and a further £65.6m for Tower D2 at the Trinity Island development in Manchester.
The developer has borrowed £268.5m from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund (GMHILF) since 2015 when the government created the £300 investment pot. So far, loans of £70m for Deansgate Square, £23.7m for Water Street and £42.5m for Wilburn Basin have been repaid in full.
Council leaders and mayor Andy Burnham approved the latest loans worth £120m at a Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) meeting last week. Since then, Renaker has announced new plans for a 71-storey tower in the Great Jackson Street area which would be Manchester's tallest building.
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The Manchester-based developer has delivered more than 6,000 new homes so far with an average or more than 600 new homes built each year since 2016. The GMHILF has helped fund 3,720 of those new homes so far with a further 927 homes to be built in the latest two developments to receive loans.
Bankside, which is the second of four towers planned in Salford's Greengate area, includes 444 apartments, a new park, public square and boulevard. The first of four towers at Trinity Island off Regent Road will feature 483 flats.
None of these apartments will be 'affordable', but a £100,000 contribution towards affordable housing elsewhere in Manchester will be made on top of the £1.5m that Renaker is investing in a new primary school at Crown Street. The developer is also creating a one-hectare public green space costing £10m.
Revenue generated from the GMHILF is ringfenced for housing initiatives such as the Greater Manchester Good Landlord Scheme, the ethical lettings agency and retrofit programmes aimed at delivering net zero carbon social housing.
The GMCA approved the latest loans at a meeting on Friday (January 27). Up to £20m of the lending is expected to come from money that public body Homes England has generated from selling land and property in Greater Manchester.
A GMCA spokesperson said: "To date, the GMCA has approved more than £650m worth of loans through the Housing Investment Loans Fund, supporting the delivery of 8,465 new homes across the city-region. Lending to large scale city-centre developments such as those delivered by Renaker is consistent with Greater Manchester’s approach to maximising new housing on brownfield land.
"Across the loans the GMCA has agreed to provide, Renaker is able to draw a maximum of £120m at any one time. As a result, repayments from its other schemes will have to have been received in order for Renaker to draw on the new loans the GMCA is now being asked to provide."
Renaker was contacted for comment but the developer did not respond.
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