Letting completes at city centre office building

Optimised Environments Limited, or ‘OPEN’, has agreed a new five-year lease to occupy 2,600 sq ft on the third floor at the Grade-II-listed 86 Princess Street building in Manchester city centre.

It becomes the second occupier to complete at the comprehensively refurbished former textile warehouse and prior to full practical completion.

OPEN is a multi-disciplinary design company with masterplanning, urban design, landscape architecture, architecture and environmental planning at its core.

Jaimie Ferguson, OPEN director, said: “We are excited to be joining the creative community at 86 Princess Street.

“The location is perfect for our team and clients and the building refurbishment celebrates values we share around collaborative working and responsive design.”

The office space has now been fully refurbished to provide the ultimate character space with original timber flooring, exposed ceilings and brickwork as well as exceptional floor-to-ceiling height.

The available space provides suites from 1,800 sq ft to full floors of 5,200 sq ft.

Matt Pickersgill, office advisory at LSH, said: “I am delighted to welcome our newest occupier, OPEN, and another great addition to the building.

“From their very first viewing it was clear they appreciated all the painstaking efforts put in to restoring this stunning building and understood exactly what we were looking to achieve.

“We are delighted they have chosen to be part of the 86 Princess Street community.”

Lambert Smith Hampton is sole leasing agent on 86 Princess Street and is also providing project management on the transformation project.

The building was acquired by a private investor in 2016.

MC Construction is the main contractor, with Atelier the heritage architect and Sheila Bird Group the designer.