A popular city centre venue looks set to close as punters know it just a month after securing planning permission to stay open ‘permanently’.

Diecast, on Store Street next to Piccadilly railway station, has been earmarked for skyscrapers, hotels, and new shops and bars by Manchester council in its ‘East Village’ development blueprint, which also covers the former Stockton’s furniture store nearby.

Town hall bosses are expected to approve an update specifically for the one-and-a-half hectare Diecast site on Tuesday (July 8). Diecast opened as a beer and food hall in 2023 after the former Presbar Diecastings factory closed its doors, and proved popular with thousands streaming in every weekend.

But despite securing planning permission for ‘permanent use’ and introduction of a ‘night market’ at the ex-industrial unit at the end of May, Diecast’s days appear to be numbered as customers know it.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands the council awarded Diecast planning permission to remain open in its current guise until ‘a new purpose-built building providing a long-term home for the venue’ is constructed under the new development blueprint.

The council’s masterplan for the area also includes ‘1,400 new homes, significant hotel space, 12,000sqm of workspace, and 6,500sqm of retail, leisure and event space’ across eight buildings — the tallest of which could be 50 storeys high.

At the centre of the new neighbourhood will be a ‘bio-park’, designed to ‘promote biodiversity’, which would be complemented by a new public square eyed for the Stockton’s furniture store next door.

Developers Liquid Funding Business hope to build a 50 storey ‘residential tower’ and a 25 storey office and apartment block around a public square there.

Leader of the council, Bev Craig, said the area has ‘some of the most exciting regeneration opportunities in our city centre’.

She added: “The neighbourhoods behind Piccadilly train station offer some of the most exciting regeneration opportunities in our city centre to continue our sustainable growth agenda – creating opportunities for new jobs, new homes and new green spaces in the heart of our city.

“The East Village Central vision – with new homes, workspace and leisure uses – is an important part this and we have an incredible opportunity to create a vibrant, sustainable destination with a unique sense of place. This area will celebrate the city’s industrial past while creating opportunities for our city’s residents into the future.

“And importantly this will be a green neighbourhood with interconnected public spaces that help bring people together, seamlessly connected to the wider city centre, to create a thriving place for everyone.”