The new owner of Manchester’s City Tower has confirmed it is hiring a planning team to look at ways of upgrading the area surrounding the building.
Schroders Property Investment Management paid £132m City Tower in the summer. Fronting both Piccadilly Gardens and New York Street, the 49-year-old building contains 615,429sq ft of office, leisure, hotel accommodation and ground floor retail units.
Despite selling on the 30-storey block, developer Bruntwood retained its headquarters in the building. Among the property’s 100 other tenants are the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the Ministry of Justice, The University of Law and Aegis Outsourcing (UK).
Under Bruntwood’s ownership a multi-million pound long-delayed refurbishment was completed, but now the tower’s new owner has commissioned CBRE to produce two parallel viability studies: one for the block itself, and one for the three-acre island site in which it sits.
“The acquisition of City Tower represented a major investment by Schroders into Manchester city centre and paves the way for significant value to be added to this landmark scheme,” explained Stuart Robinson, an executive director at the real estate service provider.
“Rather than focus inwardly upon City Tower itself, Schroders is keen to work collaboratively with local businesses, landowners, the city council and city centre management company, to improve the wider environment and capitalise upon the exceptional location of this asset.”
Robinson said his Manchester strategy planning team “was reviewing a number of options to maximise the potential of this exciting and unique opportunity at the heart of the city”.
Completed in 1965 and originally called the Sunley Building, the Piccadilly Gardens tower has the highest office space currently available in Manchester — standing at 351 ft tall — and is Manchester’s main radio transmitting station.
Schroders has also said it will work closely with the owner of a nearby building to improve the surrounding neighbourhood and, ultimately, increase the value of their assets.
One Piccadilly Gardens was bought by Legal & General Managed Property Fund for £75m in August. It has six floors of Grade A office space with shops and restaurants at street level and lists Manchester City Council, Allianz Cornhill Insurance, The Bank of New York and investment managers BNY Mellon among its tenants.
The Piccadilly Gardens area which both buildings overlook was recently described by one travel web site as “dirty” and “depressing” and “the most unpopular attraction in the city of Manchester”.
