McAleer & Rushe acquires prime Manchester site 

The Irish firm’s investment and development arm MRP has bought 20-36 High Street from CEG, a site with planning consent for 361 apartments across 22 storeys. 

MRP did not disclose how much it paid for the Manchester site when contacted by Place North West, but it is understood the plot was valued at around £8.6m. 

Whether MRP will implement the consented residential proposals designed by architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios remains to be seen.

“We are assessing various development options at present, which includes implementation of the consented residential scheme and will confirm our intentions in due course,” Graham Mitchell, development director at MRP told Place North West.

MRP’s parent company McAleer & Rushe is better known in the North West for its work as a contractor. 

The company’s construction arm is on site delivering the 278-bedroom Maldron hotel off Oxford Road in Manchester and is in line to build two more Maldron hotels, one in Salford and one in Liverpool. 

According to its website, MRP has £250m of schemes in development. The High Street site is the company’s first foray into Manchester’s property market. 

CEG won planning consent for the £96m residential redevelopment of the site in October 2019 but instructed Avison Young to market the plot for sale last spring. 

The prominent city centre site is located opposite the Arndale shopping centre and close to the former Debenhams building, which German investor AM Alpha plans to transform into 300,000 sq ft of offices with retail on the ground floor. 

CEG was contacted for comment.