North West Property Richard Frost

Work has started on the £250m Kampus mixed-use scheme near the Gay Village in Manchester city centre.

Joint venture partners Henry Boot Developments and Capital & Centric have appointed Mount Anvil as the building contractor to commence enabling works for the project on Aytoun Street. Site hoardings, strip-out and demolition of some of the disused buildings have started onsite on the first phase of the scheme, which was granted planning consent in September 2016.

The first phase comprises 478 build-to-rent apartments, and 30,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space on the ground and mezzanine floors beneath two 12- to 16-storey new buildings. It also features the comprehensive refurbishment of the existing 1960s former Aytoun Tower into a rooftop village of timber Dutch townhouses.

Adam Higgins of Capital & Centric said: "It's important to us to retain what buildings we can no matter what era they are from.

"We are obviously keeping the two listed mills but we also plan to incorporate the big 1960s tower. It may appear quite ugly and rundown at the moment but bringing this back to life has always been an important part of the vision for Kampus.

"The tower has some amazing features that we will retain including concrete waffle ceilings, 1960s stairs, signage graphics and doors. There will be nothing else like this in Manchester."

Demolition is expected to be complete by the end of summer 2017 with phase one due to be ready for occupation by 2020.