Bruntwood — the family-run property company with more than 110 city centre properties across the UK — has confirmed interest is running high for the sale of its landmark Manchester office block. At least one Middle East investor is known to be preparing a bid for the 30-storey City Tower.
The company’s chief executive, Chris Oglesby, refused to speculative on who the property’s new owner might be, but added: “There has never been greater domestic and international investor interest in the Manchester property market than at the current time.”
Completed in 1965, City Tower is currently the third tallest building in Manchester but its top-floor, at 351 feet, still boasts the highest office space anywhere in the city. After several years of neglect, and a climbing vacancy rate, Bruntwood acquired the Piccadilly Gardens property in 2004 for £65m.
Refurbishment work included a new ground floor entrance, repainting and fitting an atrium to the sides of the tower which is now one of Manchester’s main broadcast transmission sites. Among the stations using the roof top antennas are local radio stations XFM, Rock Radio, Capital on FM and digital radio multiplexes Digital One, BBC, MXR North West and CE Manchester, all of which pay substantial rental fees.
“City Tower has recently been completely refurbished to a high specification and is fully let, so it is no surprise that we have had unsolicited approaches from a number of investors over recent months,” said Oglesby. Among the block’s tenants are global call centre provider aegis and the headquarters of the web hosting company UKFast, which occupies the 28th floor.
“We have, therefore, instructed CBRE to conduct a limited marketing campaign for us and are pleased that the building is helping attract international investors into the city,” he added. If the City Tower’s £125m asking price tag was met, it would be the biggest Manchester deal since the £142m sale of The Co-operative Group’s new headquarters last year.
Although it has not been said what it will do with the cash from the sale, the company has hinted it will be used for further purchases. Among its recent acquisitions were the 400-acre AstraZeneca headquarters at Alderley Park, Macclesfield; Hilel House, next to Manchester Science Park; the West One office complex in Leeds, and Centre City Tower in Birmingham.
The 1976-founded Bruntwood has always had a different approach to property development and leasing. It owns one-third of the office space in Manchester city centre as well as several high-profile buildings in Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham.
“We don’t see ourselves as a landlord, but rather as your property partner, making sure that your choice of premises is adding the best possible benefit to the way your business works,” says the company web site.
Among the international companies which lease retail or office space from Bruntwood’s £950m portfolio are Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Krispy Kreme, WH Smith, Paddy Power, Sainsbury’s, Starbucks and Spar. And 10 per cent of each year’s annual profits from its 560,000sq metres of floorspace are donated to the arts, cultural enterprises and community charities.
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