Altrincham House of Fraser to be redeveloped
The building’s owner has put forward plans to convert the existing 60,000 sq ft store into a mixed-use development featuring offices, apartments, and retail.
Lunar, which owns the long leasehold of the Stamford Quarter, is proposing to reconfigure the building into three retail stores on the ground and lower ground floors, totalling 22,700 sq ft.
The first floor is set to be converted to a 17,200 sq ft office, while there will be 62 one and two-bed flats above. A planning application has now been put forward with Pozzoni as architect.
The House of Fraser store, branded as Rackhams, is currently occupied by a Sports Direct after the latter bought the department store group from its administrators last year.
Existing tenants in neighbouring buildings, including gym Orangetheory Fitness, will be retained as part of the plans.
The area around the House of Fraser is one of the last major parts of Altrincham’s retail core to be redeveloped; the wider Stamford Quarter has been significantly overhauled in the last five years including new retail stores and public realm.
Trafford Council is the freehold owner of the Stamford Quarter; Lunar is also currently the leasehold owner of the nearby Clarendon House, which has planning permission for an office-to-residential conversion. Lunar put this up for sale last year.
Ian Minto, director of Lunar, said: “The remodelling of the department store is the final piece of our regeneration of Stamford Quarter.
“We believe that redeveloping this important area of the centre for a high-quality, mixed-use scheme will strike the right balance in Altrincham which, through continuing investment and strategic direction, has gone from strength to strength in recent years.”
Barker Proudlove and HRH Retail are joint letting agents for Stamford Quarter.
Altrincham is better than Manchester city centre, better restaurants, safer bars, posh shops, cleaner and no drug addicts, it’s improving as Manchester is declining.
By George
George. That is because it is wealthy. Ridiculous comparison. You may also have noticed that Didsbury is better than Longsight.
By Elephant
Manchester is a bustling city with lots to contend with, nice and nasty!
Altrincham is a posh market town.
By Duh
Fantastic to hear something is happening with the anchor store. Hopefully House of Fraser remains (though needs an internal referb desperately)
We would welcome some more planting / trees. A large space that could take a bit more market town greenery.
Standardising shop fronts and signage to avoid a hotchpotch aesthetic would greatly improve the town too.
By altrincham resident
George is correct. Why would anybody want to go to ghastly Manchester when we have the market and lots of excellent posh independents in Altrincham. Alty is definitely getting too many out of town day trippers though from places like Stretford so you have to chooses your visiting times accordingly.
By Posho from Alty
@Duh – Altrincham is not posh. By comparison to Manchester City Centre it might well be.
By Gangly
If Altrincham is better than Manchester city centre, it makes you wonder why this House of Fraser is closing down?
By Loganberry
Poshest town in the North West though, second only to Harrogate in the Notth, you just have to check the house prices and school results
By Boo
Altrincham: one of the most overrated places on the planet.
By Realist
The building is being reveloped Loganberry, the landlord doesn’t need to take Mike Ashley’s nonsense whereas the Manchester landlords would be worried if they lost hof
By Boo
Oh well, judging by the CGI you’ve still got your Wilkos Boo, so everything looks just fine.
By Loganberry
Poshest place after Harrogate? Altrincham is a suburb of Manchester and is prosperous because it is where professional Mancunians live. It is totally dependent on the economy of Manchester. Harrogate is self-sufficient. Second poshest place in the North? Posher than York? Knutsford? Alderley Edge? Wilmslow? The Ribble Valley? Ilkley? Lytham St Annes, Formby? More expensive perhaps but posher? This is of course debatable .
By Elephant
Can’t imagine that the House of Fraser store which was generally 99% devoid of customers demanded parking slots anything like as much as will be needed for three stores, a whole 17000 sq ft floor of office workers and dwellers in 62 apartments. Will be interesting to see which parts of the current public car park are allocated to those users
By Chris
Altrincham used to have many shops with living accommodations above them . It worked very well . And had it’s own little community. I worked in one of the shops and we had our break in the shop owners kitchen which was above the shop.
By Grandma
Some very jealous people on here, check the house prices, that tells you everything
By Boo
Grandma that’s coming back, apartment conversion are happening up and down the high street. Unsurprising as Altrincham was named the best town to live in the UK last year.
By Boo
My wife and I both in our 70’s regularly visit for short breaks from Staffordshire. Have seen it rise from the ashes into a fabulous work in progress. Just spent Easter there brilliant.
By Graham
Altrincham is Manchester.
What Altrincham has over Manchester City Centre is that it isn’t blighted by a ghastly Arndale Centre. The Arndale is such a blight on the whole city centre, it beggars belief the council aren’t moving heaven and earth to demolish or completely redevelop it.
By Arndale hater