Skyscraper threat to Manchester’s Gay Village averted as aparthotel plans unveiled for Boulton House
The Gay Village has avoided becoming home to a skyscraper with a new plan to convert an office block into an aparthotel.
Developers were circling around Boulton House, a 1973 office building on Chorlton Street, when it went up for sale last year. Largely empty since 2020, it faced being rendered ‘obsolete’ in five years’ time, when new energy efficiency standards come into force.
Numerous firms were interested in buying the modernist building and completely demolishing it, new planning documents reveal, with estate agents telling prospective buyers ‘a new build scheme of c.20 storeys had been discussed in outline in a pre application meeting with Manchester city council’.
But ‘the majority’ of interested parties ‘indicated they would require massing (to make it financially viable) of a scale greater than this’, documents add, suggesting the Gay Village could have seen a skyscraper shoot up on the site.
In the end, a developer called The James snapped up the building for a reported £9m, and now has unveiled plans to open an aparthotel.
It will build a six-storey extension on the Bloom Street end of the T-shaped structure, and add one storey to the Major Street facade to give a consistent height across the building of around nine storeys.
Inside will contain 261 serviced apartments, comprising 229 ‘junior suites’, 14 one-bed suites, 12 accessible suites, four two-bed duplex suites, and two three-bedroom duplex suites.
Guests are expected to stay for anything from a night to several months, according to The James’ architect, SimpsonHaugh.
“The ambition is to provide a short-stay serviced suite that feels like home, designed for people visiting the city for days, weeks, or even a few months, whether working in Manchester, travelling for pleasure or something in between,” the architects said in a design and access statement.
“A range of suites have been designed in a range of sizes, from studio up to three beds. The suites are more spacious than average hotel rooms and fully equipped for self-catering, offering guests the comfort of a truly independent stay.”
Every guest will have a kitchenette, en-suite, coffee machine, and cutlery and crockery as a departure from a traditional hotel, the statement added.
The new building will be christened ‘Joyce’, and The James has similar spots in Liverpool, Sheffield and Birmingham — plus another site on the other side of Manchester city centre, Dantzic Street, called The James Manchester.