Bentry’s second Salford development: phasing, cost and programme notes for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Bentry Capital has acquired the three-acre Irwell Gardens brownfield site in Salford for £12m, targeting an £80m GDV residential scheme fronting the River Irwell. Existing consent covers phase one with 50 three- and four-bedroom townhouses, while phase two is expected to add a further 50 houses and 100 apartments, with Mellior delivering construction for about £35m. Phase one is scheduled to start in Q1 2026 with an 18‑month build, and phase two is planned as a two‑year programme once planning is secured.
Technical Brief
- Irwell Gardens is a three-acre brownfield plot, implying prior industrial use and potential contamination constraints.
- River Irwell frontage will drive flood risk, scour, and retaining structure design for gardens and townhouses.
- Bentry Capital’s in-house contractor Mellior delivers both design and build, simplifying ground-risk allocation and value engineering.
- Mellior previously completed the £29m Willow Court scheme of 119 apartments nearby, providing local ground-condition experience.
- Final Willow Court homes complete with owner-occupiers moving in January, indicating build-out and handover sequencing now proven.
- Planning for phase two will be led by Mellior, integrating constructability and phasing considerations into the application.
Our Take
An £80m GDV on a £12m Irwell Gardens land ticket and c.£35m build cost implies a relatively wide margin for a brownfield Salford scheme, which should give Bentry room to absorb contractor pricing risk between now and the 2026 Phase 1 start.
Staging Irwell Gardens into a townhouse-led first phase and a denser apartment second phase mirrors other UK residential projects in our Infrastructure coverage that are using early low-rise delivery to de-risk planning and market absorption before committing to higher-density blocks.
With Willow Court at £29m and Irwell Gardens at a materially larger scale, Bentry and Mellior are building a Salford cluster that could support portfolio-level procurement for civils and superstructure packages, improving leverage with regional contractors compared with a single-asset play.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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