Look out London. You might be the UK’s first city, but Manchester is coming hot on your tail. It’s got the culture, food and history to rival the capital, and now it’s got its sight set on similarly massive skyscrapers, too. The UK’s new tallest building outside of London has been approved for Manchester.
Viadux 2, as the skyscraper is currently known, is being masterminded by development firm Salboy. It’ll boast 76-storeys and reach a height of 246m. That’s just over 60m shorter than the UK’s tallest tower, the Shard and nearly 50m higher that the current tallest non-London building, South Tower, which is also in Manchester.
Plans for the tower were first drawn up in 2017 and unveiled last year, and now the project has been given the official go-ahead by Manchester City Council (and has backing from none other than Robert de Niro).
Built on land between Manchester Central and the Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink station, when the tower is complete, it’ll house 452 luxury flats and a 160-bed hotel. There’ll also be an exclusive swimming pool, spa, podium garden and gym.
So where does Robert De Niro come into it? Well, the Hollywood legend is actually also the co-founder of global luxury lifestyle brand Nobu. It runs hotels and restaurants in cities across the world (including several in London) and has signed up to open a new hotel, restaurant and residences inside the skyscraper.
Simon Ismail, managing director of Salboy, said: ‘Manchester is a fast-expanding city that is quickly and emphatically achieving its ambitions to become a global leader in business, sport, leisure and academia.
‘It’s a belief that we’ve long held that Manchester deserves to be home to architectural and engineering feats that before now have been the preserve of other global cities.
‘As the location of not just the tallest tower outside London but a large number of high quality affordable homes, Viadux has the potential to become a symbol of this city’s aspirations and confidence in itself.’
Another high-rise was also approved by the council as part of the Viadux scheme. It’ll be much smaller with 23 storeys and include 133 more affordable apartments.
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