Brickland in frame for Trafford B&Q resi opportunity 

The Liverpool-based build-to-rent developer is bidding to revive hopes of transforming the Great Stone Road site, submitting plans to demolish the vacant store with a view to creating around 200 apartments and a padel complex. 

Brickland, through its chief operating officer Darren Leary, is named as the applicant for recently submitted plans to demolish the B&Q store close to Old Trafford Cricket Ground. 

Plans for the redevelopment of the site will be submitted separately. However, documents lodged with the demolition application give a flavour of what the scheme could entail. 

A feasibility study drawn up by Falconer Chester Hall earlier this year outlines proposals for 204 apartments across three blocks, plus an eight-court padel tennis complex to the rear. 

Vibe Padel, a company controlled by Andrew Bell of AJ Bell and his wife Tracey, acquired the site from Accrue Capital last year for just shy of £5m. 

Accrue had failed in its own bid to redevelop the 2.5-acre site. Trafford Council refused proposals for a 332-apartment scheme and the company then tasted defeat at appeal. 

Brickland’s potential scheme features more than 100 fewer flats than Accrue’s and follows on from the completion of another residential in the borough recently. The developer’s 363-apartment build-to-rent complex Botanica wrapped up in 2021.  

That scheme, located close to Cornbrook Metrolink stop, was developed in partnership with global investor Heitman.   

To learn more about Brickland and Vibe Padel’s Great Stone Road proposals, search for application reference 111673/DEM/23 on Trafford Council’s planning portal. 

The proposals follow failed attempts from another developer to rework the site. Credit: Falconer Chester Hall via planning documents