Plans for 82 new homes and ground floor retail spaces in Stockport town centre’s historic Underbanks area are expected to be decided on by the council’s Planning Committee this summer.
Proposals, designed by Manchester architects Ollier Smurthwaite, being brought forward by developers Hall & Co will see four vacant sites in the town centre redeveloped to provide retail space for independent shops, high-quality town centre living and expand the Profolk co-working brand.
Family-run Alderley Edge-based developers Hall & Co, recently completed a conversion of the Grade II listed Bank Chambers to create Stockport town centre’s first co-working space, Profolk. Their plans for Underbanks will bring vacant and dilapidated units within the town centre back into use and complement the significant investment being put into the area by Stockport Council.
Plans for the regeneration of the sites were first submitted to Stockport Council in autumn 2020, and a decision from Stockport Council’s Planning Committee is expected to be made this summer.
Each will house a mix of one and two-bedroom flats above ground-floor commercial space, featuring ‘quirky’ shop fronts aimed at innovative independents and start-ups.
According to the architects behind the scheme, plans will ‘reimagine the stepped period townhouses which are unique to this area, characterised by its undulating topography and narrow streets and ginnels’.
The homes will be dual-aspect, built around semi-private courtyards, and have winter gardens which can function as a balcony, dining space or home office, reflecting how the pandemic has altered buyer demands.
Stockport-based Broadgrove Planning & Development provided support on the planning application, along with legal advisors Primas Law.
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