Our Greater Manchester town gets slated but this epic new development will really put it on the map

The man behind one of the biggest regeneration projects in Wigan history aims to make his home town one of the top places in the North West where people want to work, live and play.

And John Heaton revealed that the Eckersley Mills redevelopment near Wigan Pier will from now on be known as The Cotton Works, incorporating high-class hospitality, accommodation and working environments.

We were given a tour of the first of what will be 11 phases of the multi-million-pound masterplan: grade II listed Mill One. Anyone within miles of the town will have seen the work going on there in recent months as a new roof is put on the Victorian landmark. By March next year it will have been brought back to life as mixed-use premises with 80,000ft sq of offices, a rooftop bar-restaurant, and a ground floor food hall including two bars and a pub.

A huge amount of work has already gone into stripping back the building to its skeleton and constructing the new roof. Currently there are a few dozen workers on site but once the place is weatherproofed, Mr Heaton says that things will “ramp up dramatically” as all manner of specialist workers and contractors move in.

And before the year is out, work could also begin on Mill Three which has planning permission to be converted into 137 apartments. There are also plans to move the roller rink in Mill Two - at which Mr Heaton had his first date as an 11-year-old - to new premises close to Pottery Road.

A “masterplan application” is also expected soon too, seeking permission to demolish certain other parts of the site and create new buildings, including a hotel. And, if everything goes to plan, the whole “16-acre urban neighbourhood” should be finished in six to seven years’ time. It’s a scheme on a truly epic scale, and yet one which started with the modest ambition of Heaton Group seeking a new home.

Mr Heaton, 50, the third generation boss of his family firm who took over its running aged just 18, said: “Five years ago my brother said ‘look at this mill.’ I always had a rule of not getting involved in pubs, churches and mills, but I came down on my bike to take a look. I am from Wigan, a lot of the staff are and we were looking to have a proper presence in the town even though we work all over the region from Preston to Manchester. Plus I don’t want to have to travel to work.

"I thought ‘this would be a nice base.’ But you can’t just do up one part and then be surrounded by ruins. The previous landlord had done nothing with it and some parts are beyond saving. But it is a magnificent place with huge potential and so everything grew from there.

"Things have been taking shape how we planned them and now the project is beginning to exceed expectations. We are creating a destination here. We are predominantly a residential developer but we can’t just have accommodation here.”

The successful Feast at the Mills – held in a couple of the smaller buildings and featuring street food, a bar and live music at weekends – is just a small first taste of things to come.

Mr Heaton said: “The food hall in Mill One will be best in class: better than anything in Manchester and Liverpool. The designers we have are the best in the business with a CV including Battersea to Barcelona.”

And at the top of the building there is no stinting on quality either, the bar-restaurant plus a co-working space are being designed by a specialist with a global reputation whose previous works in London include restaurants Hawksmoor and Dishoom.

Mr Heaton said: “This is going to be out of this world. And there is no shortage of interest from people wanting to be a part of it.

"Out of five floors of office space, we only have one left that isn’t fully let. The building we currently occupy on the corner of Swan Meadow Road will become an arcade with a coffee shop, barber/hairdresser, wine merchant and cheese merchant. With the food hall nearby, kids’ play, a bit of retail, activities for older children and adults, we will have real multi-functionality: things that make you want to come here for a whole variety of reasons.”

As for new buildings, Mr Heaton said that there is a gym that wants to move in and interviews are ongoing with other prospective tenants. Several bands already practise in various buildings on site and, as The Cotton Works evolves, there could be as many as 20 calling it home.

Mr Heaton said: “All this makes my hair stand on end. We want Wigan to be a place for business and to where people want to relocate. There are a lot of good people in Wigan; it’s a town that gets unduly slated and we are doing something about that.”

Development manager Alex McCulloch took us around Mill One, starting at the very top which gives a great overview of the site as well as spectacular panoramas of Wigan. The rooftop area will be partially glazed and there are all sorts of plans for dramatic staircases and vaulted areas showing off the building's full majesty There will be three lifts installed eventually.

Looking inside the ground floor, there is much work yet to start, but Mr McCulloch is confident everything will be pretty much done by the first weeks of the new year, with the food hall only opening two months after that because January is not a good time of year to launch such things.

Feast at the Mills was recently given a three-year extension but if all goes as expected, these semi-al fresco events will end at Christmas with hospitality then moving indoors.