The former Granada Studios site will be worth £1.35 billion after it is transformed into new city centre neighbourhood St John's Quarter.

The massive 15-acre scheme will include three hotels comprising around 400 rooms, The Factory theatre and other performance venues plus 2,500 apartments.

A 'vertical village' - revealed by the MEN earlier this year at the MIPIM property convention in Cannes - called Trinity Islands will also be located close to St John's if separate planning applications are approved.

Detailed plans for Trinity Islands were revealed by Mike Ingall of Alllied London at the Old Granada Studios site on Quay Street today.

He said it will feature six inter-connecting towers, up to 50-storeys high, on a 4.7 acre site south off Liverpool Road.

(Image: Child Graddon Lewis)

The 'community scheme' will have 1,200 homes, a school, play areas, green space, shops and restaurants fronting the river as well as potential for medical and education facilities and workspace.

Mr Ingall said plans for Trinity Islands and the first phase of St John's will be submitted this summer.

He was speaking to property experts, architects and local residents in front of separate models for both neighbourhood schemes.

Almost 20 hotel operators have submitted proposals to be based within St John's Quarter too, with bosses wading currently 'wading through the applications', according to Mr Ingall.

He also said Spinningfields would be worth almost £2bn as it stands, compared with the estimated £1.35bn value of St John's once it is built.

Mr Ingall said: "The St John's masterplan planning application will be submitted at the end of next month, with a plan to commence work by summer/autumn 2016. Work on phase two of the project is expected to start at the end of 2018, with the whole St John's project expected to be complete by the end of 2022."

He added: "We (Allied London) have managed to make Spinningfields into an actual 'place'. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is very corporate, but it is a 'place'.

"St John's is very different. It's a neighbourhood and has got no corporate sense of space at all. Our vision is a community which also brings creative people in.

"House owners aren't automatically deferring to the suburbs now. I think more people want to live in the cities.

"So the vision is to build on that and build Manchester's first living neighbourhood.

"We are also designing shops within St John's that are no more than 10 feet wide. We want small retailers and independents there. It will almost be like creating a new kind of Northern Quarter, but more managed and more indpendent."

Mr Ingall also told the audience that the level of interest from major hotel operators in St John's has been overwhelming.

"We have been overwhelmed with the level of interest and have shortlisted two hotel operators but continue to wade through the applications.

"All the hotel operators are buying into the neighbourhood concept."

The St John's proposal

2,500 apartments

Three hotels comprising 350 to 400 rooms

New riverside space with cycle ways

New green spaces

Low rise buildings to be used by independent firms to create 'a village vibe'

£76m Factory Manchester theatre

A revamped Bonded Warehouse