The University of Manchester is going out to tender for phase one of a £245 million campus accommodation development.

The university first called for bids for its Fallowfield Student Village project back in June last year but scrapped the process in May this year.

At that time, the university estates department commented: “The final tenders received were substantially in excess of the budget and made the project unaffordable in its current form.” It is now rebidding the work with the deal restructured into three phases.

Among the existing properties is the Owens Park Tower which will be demolished and replaced by 3,000 new student accommodation units. The existing accommodation at Ashburne Hall, Sheavyn House, Richmond Park and Woolton Hall is to be retained.

The scheme will also see the construction of a new student hub and improved sports facilities.

The university secured a finance deal with Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development Company for the scheme two years ago.

Mubadala is also partly funding the development of the Manchester Graphene Engineering & Innovation Centre, through its Masdar subsidiary, and is establishing joint graphene application research and fellowship programmes with the university.

In the first phase, which has an estimated contract value of £75million, eight housing blocks will be built, with 1,122 rooms. Completion is expected by June 2019.

Demolition and replacement of the existing Oak House buildings and The Limes will then follow on as the second phase, valued at £92m. The £65 million phase three should begin in April 2021; this will see the demolition of existing Owens Park buildings and building 896 cluster flat study bedrooms.

The university already has a construction framework agreement with Balfour Beatty, Laing O’Rourke and Sir Robert McAlpine to deliver most of its larger projects over the next eight years but the Fallowfield project is now deemed outside the scope of this.

Further contract information is available via in-tendhost.co.uk/universityofmanchester