It’s been an active year for the Urban Splash Residential Fund – whose investment portfolio now exceeds £70m with more than 300 homes spread across Manchester, Sheffield, Cambridge, Bristol, Birmingham and Bradford. We have raised £150 Million of equity so have more to spend

The most recent acquisition came in Birmingham, where The Fund completed its £12m purchase of Derwent House from a Javelin Works and Oval joint venture. The Listed building of 40, one- and two-bedroom duplex homes and lofts is well located in the city’s Jewellery Quarter, and was originally intended for retail sale - but the speed of action and ability to price well convinced the vendors to sell as a single lot.

Earlier in the year, it made a further £30m of acquisitions including apartments at Budenberg in Altrincham, as well as a portfolio of homes at Northstowe in Cambrideshire.

The Fund remains on the hunt for new land and buildings – if you know of any, drop our colleagues Akeel and James a line (as links to email).

We acquired 5 Richmond Street off market in the city’s Gay Village, refurbishing it with the help of R2 Architecture to create 7,000 sq ft of workspace. The first customers have just moved in – including creative agency Leith.

In summer 2019, the National Trust named named Urban Splash as development partner following a highly competitive process to bring forward a mixed-use scheme around Windermere railway station on 22 acres of uniquely situated land in the Lake District National Park.

Having been chosen by competition as developers for this site alongside our joint venture partners Places for People, the land owners, Canals & Rivers Trust and Birmingham City Council, we’re now transforming Port Loop in Birmingham into a contemporary new island neighbourhood. The first phases of homes are sold and occupied. The neighbourhood’s going to be rich in green space too, including our one-acre community park.

We acquired Brownsfield Mill in Manchester, now Avro, – one of the city’s last undeveloped Victorian mills from Town Centre Securities. We’ve created some of Manchester’s biggest loft apartments in the building, all of which are now sold

More than £100m has now been invested into Park Hill in Sheffield, creating hundreds of new homes, workspaces, a nursery, a cafe and landscaping. With the help of our partners Places for People, we’ve completed phases 1 and 2, with more than 450 duplex homes created, as well as ground floor commercial spaces that are home to a café, nursery and at gallery. A third phase was completed by Alumno who have created student accommodation at Park Hill, and we recently shared our vision for a fourth phase.

It’s not just land we are buying for much needed homes we are buying commercial buildings too. We purchased Beehive Mill in Ancoats from a major London fund – with the deal taking just nine days from offer to completion. We’ve since invested in creating new workspaces within Beehive Mill – notably signing the Prince’s Trust on a 10,000 sq ft space; all of the workspaces within the building are now occupied.

Urban Splash – in joint venture partnership with Places for People – was appointed following a highly competitive process as preferred developer for the development of Campbell Park in Milton Keynes. It will be our first scheme in the South East and will comprise around 500 homes. Watch this space for details…

We announced that we’d acquired the 28,500 sq ft Crabtree Lane industrial unit – as well as 3.48 acres of land around it – in east Manchester; following our trend of quick paced purchases, the deal was completed in just 24 days.

Our run of commercial acquisitions continued with our purchase of Barton Business Park in Eccles; an industrial investment on a 2.6-acre site acquired in a cash purchase.

We acquired four acres of land from Salford City Council on the banks of the River Irwell to create Irwell Riverside, where homes are now complete and fully occupied.

We acquired the 46,000 sq ft Office Village, now Boat Shed, at Exchange Quay in Salford Quays for refurbishment and investment. The scheme was acquired from a major fund in a deal that completed in just five working days. It’s been transformed and is now home to a great range of businesses, who enjoy a communal meeting hub, café, and landscaped gardens.

We were given a chance to extend our work in Plymouth - where we’ve converted Royal William Yard into a great place to live and a thriving tourist destination - by acquiring the city’s Grade II Listed Civic Centre from Plymouth City Council.

We acquired the former Regiment pub site in Manchester’s Castlefield - a scheme which has planning permission for 44 apartments - from major listed developers. The off-market transaction was completed in just 10 days.

We have also made acquisitions on behalf of our associated family company TBI, including:

We acquired this building in a transaction that took less than eight weeks to complete. It’s located in the Manchester’s Northern quarter an area that is a leisure destination for a host of independent restaurants, bars and clubs – and somewhere our Chairman Tom helped to name back in the 90s!

This Grade II listed Georgian building was acquired at auction, and is located in the heart of Bristol city centre.

We completed the purchase of this Grade II listed building in Manchester in just 20 days early in 2021. The structure’s packed with beautiful features such as its giant fluted Corinthian columns, and is located close to the centre of Manchester at the south west corner of Piccadilly Gardens.

Acquired in April 2021, this industrial property is located on the fringe of Manchester city centre close to Manchester Piccadilly Train Station and the end of the Mancunian Way (A57(M)) which forms part of the inner ring road. We purchased the property off market from a private vendor within the agreed timescale of eight weeks.

Sparkle Street's a proper Mancunian gem with buildings that epitomise Manchester’s industrial heritage. The impressive surroundings are famed for influencing the works of literary legend Elizabeth Gaskell, with Sparkle Street mentioned in her debut novel. We acquired the two-storey, 2000 sq ft 18 Sparkle Street building from a private vendor.

We also completed the acquisition of Phoenix Mill in Ancoats.

If you wish to discuss a prospective development we’d love to hear from you; you can reach our team on development@urbansplash.co.uk.