The report of the Head of Planning, Building Control and Licensing is attached.

The site measures 0.07 hectares and is bounded by Piccadilly, Gore Street and Chatham Street with the Waldorf Public House (Roby Street) and Indemnity House (no.7 Chatham St) immediately to the rear.  It is occupied by the vacant Grade II Listed former Union Bank building at 12 Piccadilly and an adjacent surface level car park (14 -16 Piccadilly). It forms part of a wider island site bounded by Piccadilly, Gore Street, Roby Street and Chatham Street.

The Listed building was built in 1911 and designed by Thomas Worthington and Son. It is constructed of Portland Stone and has a rectangular plan form with a chamfered corner that articulates the main ground floor former bank entrance. The tripartite elevations have channelled rustications to the ground floor, rusticated quoins to all angles of the upper floors and pedimented attic windows articulate the roof. The door at the junction of Chatham Street and Piccadilly is not original and has been replaced. The round-headed doorway on Piccadilly does have its original doors which provided access into office spaces on the upper floors. 

The applications propose the erection of a 23 storey building (121m), plus a plant level, and the conversion of the listed building to create a 356 bed hotel comprising 116 single, 44 twin, 175 double, 6 deluxe double rooms and 15 accessible rooms (11 in listed building and 4 in the new building). There would be bedrooms on the first, second, third and fourth floors of the refurbished Listed Building. The hotel entrance would be on Gore Street where a ground floor lobby would link via stairs and a lift to a breakfast area, within the former banking hall of the Listed Building. Ancillary facilities comprising offices, plant space, cycle parking and a laundry would be in the basement of the Listed Building.  

The current proposal is an amendment to this most recently submitted scheme and would retain more of the internal fabric of the listed building including stairwell that would previously been removed. The height of the new build element has increased from 22 to 23 storeys as a consequence.

The applicant’s agent spoke to the Committee and explained the scope and background to the proposed development.  This would be the first UK hotel for this operator, who have recently opened a UK headquarters in Manchester.  The proposals have also been designed to retain as much as possible of the internal structure and architecture of the Listed Building, which has been vacant since 2006.  After discussion with Historic England, more of the internal fabric and structures will be retained than was planned under the previous permissions, both of which have now expired.  He said that Historic England have also described the current proposals as a significant improvement on the previous schemes. 

The proposals will support a £90 million investment into the Manchester economy, and will support the creation of 175 jobs in the construction phase, and 58 permanent jobs when operational.

The Committee asked for clarification regarding the retention of heritage assets and the Green infrastructure, and requested clarification of whether planting 3 street trees was sufficient, given the level of pollution in the City Centre.  The Committee also asked for further information as to whether the development would have a “Green Roof” as suggested in the report.  The Committee also expressed some concern that the scale of the building would lead to overshadowing of neighbouring buildings, including the Listed Building.

Officers advised the Committee that due to the constraints of the site, 3 street trees appeared to be the maximum amount that could fit on the site frontages.  Officers agreed that they would take this matter away and seek to negotiate an additional condition to explore the potential for  further planting of street trees should this be possible, and reminded the Committee that the development should not contribute to pollution as it was intended to be car free.

Officers also confirmed that the Green Roof will be provided and is included as part of the plans submitted by the applicant.

With regard to overshadowing, officers advised the Committee that an assessment of daylight, sunlight and overshadowing has been undertaken, using specialist software to measure the amount of daylight and sunlight that is available to windows in a number of neighbouring buildings. The assessment made reference to the BRE Guide to Good Practice – Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight Second Edition BRE Guide (2011). The guidance does not have ‘set’ targets and is intended to be interpreted flexibly. It acknowledges that there is a need to take account of locational circumstances, such as a site being within a town or city centre where higher density development is expected and obstruction of natural light to buildings is sometimes inevitable.

The Committee asked for clarification as to the construction materials to be used, and whether they would merge with the materials of the Listed Building, and officers confirmed that while as much of a match as possible would be made, it was inevitable that there would be a visual difference between Portland Stone aggregate which the development would be constructed with, and 100 year old Portland Stone which the Listed Building was constructed from. 

The Committee also asked if the 4% accessible rooms in the proposed Hotel was comparable to other hotels of this size, and expressed some concern that there was no disabled parking provision included in the proposal.  Officers confirmed that there is no specific percentage figure that could be applied to this or any other development, but that the level of number of rooms was comparable with other hotels of this size.   Officers added that 2 on-street disabled parking bays would be provided as part of the scheme.

The Committee concluded that the proposals would be consistent with a number of the GM Strategy's key growth priorities. There is an important link between economic growth, regeneration and the provision of new employment opportunities and there is an acknowledged need to provide additional hotel accommodation in the city centre in order to support the sustainable growth of the region’s economy.

Decision

To approve the application subject to the conditions and reasons in the report and the late Representations and the further condition regarding street trees.