Towers Business Park sold for £47m

THE Towers Business Park in Didsbury, Manchester, has been bought by real estate fund manager Moorfield Group for £47m.

The estate, home to tenants including British Airways, John Lewis, Vodafone and Cisco, comprises of nine office buildings, totalling 290,000 sq ft, within 19 acres of landscaped parkland.  It was previously owned by Dutch investor Wereldhave.

Manchester based Property Alliance Group, a joint venture partner with Moorfield, will manage the properties.

Under the new ownership, a comprehensive refurbishment programme including extensive landscaping works, will be undertaken.

Marc Gilbard, chief executive of Moorfield Group, said: “The partnership has worked hard over the last 24 months to find the right opportunities to acquire in the North West.

“We are confident in this asset’s potential to become an even more successful and desirable location following our focus on building and site improvements, satisfying current and future occupier demand and requirements.”

Dominic Pozzoni, director, Property Alliance Group, added: “Our focus has always been on building relationships and partnerships with agents, occupiers and strategic joint venture partners and this off-market acquisition confirms the hard work put in by all involved.”

“We are already underway with plans to make the change in ownership seamless for existing occupiers and to assess ways to improve the park to ensure Towers is a destination in this key area of Manchester.”

Andrew Turton, Managing Director of Wereldhave, said: “The sale of The Towers is in line with our investment strategy to focus on shopping centre acquisitions and follows the purchase of the Dolphin centre in Poole.”

WHR Property acted on behalf of Moorfield and Property Alliance Group and Jones Lang La Salle acted for the vendor.