Manchester’s Mid-Century Classic Gets A Sky High Rethink

Manchester’s first skyscraper is to see a £150M makeover, including 43K SF of new grade-A office floorspace.

Castlebrooke Investments has submitted a planning application for the CIS Tower, at 387 feet high, Manchester’s early attempt at a high-rise cityscape.

The redevelopment is to ensure the grade II-listed building, completed in 1962, remains usable. It involves providing new entrances that link the scheme firmly into the expanding NOMA office district at Dantzic Street.

A decision on the planning application is expected by April 2020 and construction will begin in 2021.

The plan involves building a new three-storey extension to the podium, increasing the net lettable office area by 43K SF from 293K SF to 336K SF. There will also be additional amenity floorspace.

The 28-storey tower “will deliver 336K SF of grade-A office floorspace alongside new active retail and leisure uses,” a planning statement from Deloitte Real Estate said.

The scheme's four buildings will include podium-level floorplates of up to 35K SF, and panoramic views in redesigned high level workspace on levels 23, 24 and 25.

The plan also envisages the creation of new entrances on Dantzic Street and on the eastern elevation of the building; new amenity spaces; and change of use to basement and ground floor, from offices to retail, food and drink and storage.

“No other 1960s listed building of this scale has been refurbished to this extent before in the UK and we believe this to be a truly unique proposal,” Castlebrooke Director Estelle Hunt said. 

The Co-operative Group is the tenant.

Today the CIS Tower totals 620K SF of mixed-use space, across 28 floors, as well as provision for retail and leisure uses on the basement and ground floors.

Simpson Haugh is the architect, with Stephen Levrant Heritage appointed as conservation and heritage consultant.