Crescent Innovation Zone North ECF p consultation

Early designs for Crescent Innovation Zone. Credit: via consultation documents

ECF details first phase of £2.5bn Salford Crescent

A consultation has begun for Crescent Innovation North, which aims to build up to 950 homes and 1.6m sq ft of education, research, and industrial space on land near the University of Salford’s Peel Park Campus.

Crescent Innovation North is to be set on 27 acres within Salford’s “Innovation Triangle” – an area that includes the University of Salford, MediaCity, and Salford Royal Hospital.

The project is the brainchild of the University of Salford, Salford City Council, and The English Cities Fund. ECF is a joint venture between Homes England, Muse Developments, and Legal & General.

Crescent Innovation North is centred on land just to the north and west of the Peel Park Campus. The consultation follows months after an environmental impact assessment scoping report was filed with Salford City Council. That report gave a hint of what ECF had planned for the site, which the consultation has subsequently confirmed.

In addition to the research space and homes, Crescent Innovation North would include up to 27,000 sq ft of ground floor retail and a 260,000 sq ft multi-storey “movement hub”.

This movement hub would be situated on Frederick Road and would provide car parking spaces, electric vehicle charging points, cycle parking and hire, e-scooters, and a car club provision.

Designs by Make Architects show buildings ranging from being between two and 11 storeys in height.

Crescent Innovation North proposals also call for improvements to drainage, public realm, and pedestrian and vehicle access to the site. Buildings along the edge of the site would be redeveloped in phases as well.

Salford Rise, a nearly five-acre podium over Frederick Road, is part of the Crescent Innovation North vision. Salford Rise already has planning permission and has been awarded £13m by the government’s Levelling Up Fund.

A planning application for the rest of Crescent Innovation North is being geared up for an early 2023 submission. The consultation on the proposals runs through 2 December and can be accessed at cbre.co.uk/crescent-innovation.

Crescent Innovation North is part of ECF’s wider £2.5bn Salford Crescent masterplan, which covers 240 acres in the city. The masterplan includes proposals to build 2.4m sq ft of research and industry space, a 165,000 sq ft hotel, 145,000 sq ft of retail and more than 2,650 homes.

CBRE is the planning consultant for Crescent Innovation North and Salford Crescent. Infrastructure Aecom, landscape architect Planit-IE, project manager and quantity surveyor Faithful + Gould, and engineering and sustainability consultancy Cundalls.

Your Comments

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Just hope some of the planning includes better management of traffic along the crescent. It’s great that the city centre is really spreading out this way but if you’re travelling in or out of Manchester it’s a nightmare whether it’s Bus or car at the moment.

By Anonymous

Yeah right, they’ve been promising this for decades

By Lee

Is the original Crescent still there.
That was such a dump.

By Eric

The original crescent Eric? You mean the row of Georgian houses? Sounds like you’ve not been back for quite some time!

By Anonymous

That row of Georgian houses is a missed opportunity. Salford and Manchester have few Georgian houses and that terrace is crying out to be lived in. It should be used as a template, for how to develop that area as a proper community.

By Elephant

The Crescent pub, Karl Marx old haunt is still there but only because it’s a listed building. Sadly even more dilapidated and forlorn than ever but destined to be renewed and turned back into the The Red Dragon which it was in a long previous life. They’d better hurry though.

By John

We were invited to a consultation event once and then no more. I think all involved should remember that things done to us as citizens and residents is not for us, as we are very rarely involved

By Mike Thorpe

Architects should make better use of the roofs

By Mike

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