A £35m Bolton town centre regeneration project has entered a key phase, as work is well underway to create 167 new high-quality homes for rent.
Award-winning build-to-rent developer Placefirst is transforming a brownfield site at Central Street into a new neighbourhood offering a mixture of apartments and town houses for long-term rent.
It is just one of several regeneration projects currently underway as part of Bolton Council’s ongoing work to make the town centre a more exciting and vibrant place to live, work and visit.
A key part of this plan is to attract more people to live in the town centre, shifting focus away from retail to provide a mix of residential developments, as well as leisure and hospitality.
Placefirst appointed Caddick Construction and started work on the Central Street site in February this year.
The site is fully prepared, and the team is now completing the piled foundations.
What we can see here is, quite literally, the laying of the foundations for the future of Bolton town centre.
Work has also started to create new public space along the River Croal and to create a new feature.
The finished neighbourhood will feature rooftop terraces and resident gardens, residents will have easy access to Queens Park and will benefit from excellent transport links.
Once building work is complete, Placefirst will remain on site to manage and maintain the Central Street neighbourhood, with a dedicated resident services manager responsible for running every aspect of the scheme.
Central Street builds on an impressive existing track record for Placefirst, who have delivered and professionally manage over 1,500 homes across the UK.
They are currently on site with over 300 homes across five locations, and have an exciting pipeline of developments set to start on site later this year.
Bolton Council Leader, Cllr Nick Peel, visited the Central Street site this week to see the progress for himself.
He said: “What we can see here is, quite literally, the laying of the foundations for the future of Bolton town centre.
“The way people shop has changed, and we are working to shift the focus away from just retail and instead offer a wider variety of reasons for people to live and visit here.
“Alongside our growing cultural offer, modern urban neighbourhoods like this will help us create a vibrant town centre where people want to live, tourists want to visit, students want to study, and businesses want to invest.”
Placefirst’s development director, Darran Lawless, said:
“We are delighted with the progress on site at Central Street, where we are delivering an exemplar neighbourhood of 167 new quality homes for private rent, with features such as enhanced public realm, communal and commercial space for residents to enjoy.
“It is important to have a mix of housing types available to cater for the local demographic, and Placefirst specialise in creating bespoke build-to-rent neighbourhoods where residents can settle and stay for the long term, creating a real community, and benefitting the local economy.
“We look forward to updating on future milestones as work progresses in the coming months.”