Property round-up: CBRE to market Ship Canal House; Nolan Redshaw to sell Apollo HQ; and more
CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has been appointed by HIMOR Group as managing agent of the Ship Canal House office development in Manchester.
HIMOR Group bought Ship Canal House in a £22.8m deal in January. The 70,000 sq ft building on King St uis currently occupied by a number of mediam financial, professional services firms, including the Manchester office of law firm Gateley.
The Grade II-listed building has a striking new reception area, high-speed passenger lifts, remodeled common areas and bathrooms, as well as an amount of car parking for tenants.
Peter Williams, associate director of property & asset management at CBRE, said: “After a rigorous pitch we are delighted to be appointed as managing agent of Ship Canal House. King Street has a long-standing reputation as one of the city’s primary business locations.”
CBRE is also joint office agent on the building alongside WHR.
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Property consultancy Nolan Redshaw has been appointed to sell Apollo Cinema’s headquarters building at Sceptre Court, Bamber Bridge, in Preston.
Apollo Cinemas said that it had taken the decision to relocate its headquarters to
London and, as such, the building will be surplus to requirements within three months.
Nolan Redshaw director Mike Redshaw said: “This is a high-profile headquarters building which sits alongside other high profile occupiers such as Enterprise and Eric Wright. As such, we expect a great deal of interest in the property”.
The property is 6,500 sq ft in size and is available on a freehold or leasehold basis.
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RESEARCH Triangle Institute (RTI) Health Solutions has relocated its UK headquarters to a 7,648 sq ft office at the 300,000 sq ft Towers Business Park in Didsbury, south Manchester.
The firm has taken a ten-year lease for the space on the second floor of The Pavilion building. It has relocated from Manchester city centre, and the move has alllowed it to take on four more staff.
RTI Health Solutions provides consulting and research expertise to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostics and medical device companies to help develop and commercialise their products.
RTI’s vice president of health economics, Stephen Beard, said: “We were looking for an established business park location in south Manchester that provided good quality, efficient space to facilitate our continued expansion.
“Not only did Towers offer this space, but it did so within an employee-friendly environment conducive to team health and motivation that was easily accessible to all of our staff.”
Towers was represented in the deal by GVA and OBI Property and RTI was represented by Colliers International.
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A COMPANY which provides training services to plant operators in the construction industry, NPORS, has relocated its headoffice from the outskirts of Northwich onto the nearby 60-acre Gadbrook Park business park.
NPORS has acquired a two-storey self-contained office, No. 14, Brunel Court, comprising approximately 1,300 sq ft together with five car parking spaces on a new five-year Lease at an initial rental of £13,500 pa from the owners, Tamar Capital. Richard Smith of chartered surveyors Fifield Glyn advised the owners.
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THE North West Leisure and Alternative Investment team at CBRE has been instructed by Eden Park Developments to market a 2.5 acre site at Buckshaw Village, Chorley.
The site is next to the proposed village centre – construction of which is due to start in mid-2011. Subject to planning permission, CBRE has said that the development site would be suited for use as a nursing or care home.
Buckshaw Village is considered one of the UK’s largest urban areas, with 3,500 residential units being built. New facilities in the area include a recently-completed Tesco supermarket, a primary school and a community centre. Development land available is between 1 and 2.5-acres.
CBRE associate director Julian Such said: “The available site is located in a prime position which, subject to planning permission, is particularly suitable for care home development.
“Eden Park Developments is willing to consider a range of disposal options including a freehold sale, a turnkey sale to an agreed specification or a commercial lease.”
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ROMAC Technical Services has agreed a 31,156 sq ft letting on a five-year lease for a unit at SEGRO’s Heywood Distribution Park.
Romac is a specialist supplier of logtistics and installation services which is moving from Unit P1 at the oar the Unit B4.
It will be used for storage and for parking for six wagons.
John McDonald, managing director at Romac, said: “Heywood Distribution Park is the perfect location for us to grow our business. The company’s relocation to Unit B4 has been very straightforward and we have had a great deal of flexibility in terms of the lease.
“The Park has excellent links to the motorway network and the accommodation is second to none in terms of the facilities, the security and the quality of the units available.”
Savills and King Sturge are joint letting agents at Heywood Distribution Park.
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MARKETING consultancy Strategic North has relocated from its previous base at Daresbury Park in Runcorn to Media House at Richmond Road in Bowdon, Cheshire. The healthcare specialist has taken 1,000 sq ft of space on the ground and first floors of the building on a three-year lease.
David Coleiro, partner at Strategic North, said: “Our business has grown at a phenomenal rate over the last 18 months, and
we had reached the point where we needed to expand our office space.
“The offices in Bowdon are ideal – they are as individual as Strategic North, so our culture can really flourish and grow along with the business.”
Daniel Lee of Regional Property Solutions, which acted on behalf of the private landlord, said: “This was a rare opportunity to occupy a refurbished character property in the heart of Bowdon.
“We had a lot of interest in the property demonstrating once again the demand for quality self-contained offices in south Manchester.”
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A FORMER public toilet in Eccles which has a £30,000 price tag is one of the more unusual lots which will come under the hammer at Eddisons’ latest auction later this month.
The building, which is being offered under the instruction of joint receivers, already has planning approval for conversion into a taxi office and work has already started on the project.
The Leeds-based auctioneer said that it is one of 121 lots scheduled to be auctioned in its biggest ever Manchester sale planned for June 21 at the Premier Inn at Trafford Park.
Eddisons’ Andrew Brown said: “The catalogue contains a wide variety of lots from across the North West which should mean there is something for everybody.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool-based auctioneer Sutton Kersh recently sold off the former Wavertree Town Hall building for its guide price of £100,000. It was one of 63 lots which had been placed up for auction – of which 40 were sold either before, during
or immediately after the event.
The auction generated more than £2.3m in proceeds, with the most in-demand lot being the former Lambeth Hotel in Walton which sold for three-times its guide price of £25,000.
Cathy Holt, auction manager at Sutton Kersh, said: “It is encouraging to see properties selling for well in excess of their guide price, especially investment properties. I believe the majority of investors are still being very cautious and
negotiating hard to secure cheap deals.”
