Property round-up: Baltic Hotel; Jackson House; Glenbrook; Flintshire Retail Park; Greenworks

From left: Baltic Hotel manager Vicki Hanlon, Town Hotels sales manager Suzanne McEldowney, Duncan Stewart, Kevin Doran

The first hotel in Liverpool’s thriving Baltic Triangle has opened following more than £7m-worth of investment.

The Baltic Hotel was built throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and officially rolled out the red carpet and uncorked the champagne to celebrate doors opening just days after the Government’s end of all restrictions.

Owners Town Hotels, led by managing director Kevin Doran and his business partner, say it is “a place where punk art meets urban chic and traditional hip joins synonymously with effortless cool”.

Every one of the 58 rooms delivers an eccentric, unique feel with music memorabilia adorning the walls and luxurious lounge areas. Peloton bikes have also been installed in some spaces while others boast stellar views over the city and River Mersey.

Completing the rooms are fully-stocked Marshall speaker mini-bars and interactive tablet controls.

The Baltic Hotel, situated in a former factory and warehouse, is also blessed with two beautiful spaces and the owners have kept many of the original features in order “to show off pre-war architecture dressed in post-war modernism”.

One space is being transformed into the Duck & Swagger pub, with inspiration drawn from Guy Ritchie’s trendy London offerings, and the second is a laid back Shoreditch-style restaurant called The Baltic Brasserie – with both venues set to open later in 2021.

The new hotel will open up the entire Baltic Triangle to new Liverpool visitors and Town Hotels is aiming to offer a true staycation experience.

The Baltic Triangle was almost written off 14 years ago as little more than a wasteland and red light district. However, it is now one of Britain’s hippest destinations and the former industrial area has received another major shot in the arm with The Baltic Hotel opening its doors to make the district a true tourist destination.

Operations director, Duncan Stewart, said: “We’re incredibly excited to officially open The Baltic Hotel. Anyone visiting this summer, now restrictions are coming to an end, will be able to feel the pulse and energy The Baltic Hotel offers with live events and an eccentric, eclectic mix of high-end decoration.

“We’ve spent more than £11m on The Baltic Hotel and our recently completed Duke Street Boutique Apartments, working alongside a brilliant team throughout the pandemic in order to add to our already established serviced apartment portfolio which includes York Street Studios and Chavasse Apartments in the city centre.

“We are hoping for a truly incredible summer and are sure anyone who visits will not be disappointed by our unique offering.”

::

Jackson House reception

The comprehensive £6.5m redevelopment of the prominent Jackson House in Sale has completed, unveiling 130,000 sq ft of the highest quality office space.

Property company CEG has managed the delivery of a building which is set to rival the city centre offer, as well as boasting the largest single floor plates of any office in South Manchester at almost 30,000 sq ft.

Jackson House has been transformed with a circa 2,000 sq ft extension, a striking contemporary glazed double height entrance reception, gym, café and terrace, complete with a variety of spaces to eat, meet, drink and work with access to free WiFi and plug in points.

The ‘pop out’ windows complete the new look and a new cycle hub and electric vehicle charging points have been installed, alongside the refurbishment of interior business suites.

Designed with sustainability in mind, the redevelopment has provided Grade A office space with energy-efficient lighting and heating solutions, enhanced by new thermally-efficient windows. As well as reducing customers’ operating costs this has delivered an appealing working environment for staff.

Robert Morton, investment manager at CEG, said: “This multimillion-pound refurbishment, extension and rebrand has been delivered with our business customers in mind. This striking high street building provides healthy, sustainable and productive space designed to attract and retain the best talent, whether a small business or multi-national corporate.”

Up to 78,000 sq ft is available across three-storeys. Workspace from 14,000 to 29,000 offers EPC A-rated eco friendly offices and all of the building’s energy supply comes from renewable sources, with 100% of the waste generated being diverted from landfill. Improvements to the glazing, lighting, heating and ventilation have helped to significantly improved the energy rating as part of the redevelopment.

The refurbishment has also unveiled CEG’s Let Ready range of studio space for smaller and fast-growing businesses. Six Let Ready Studios offer fully furnished workspace for teams of eight to 18 people, complete with modern kitchens, dedicated meeting rooms or they can be provided ready for the tenant’s bespoke fit out if preferred.

An on-site Life team is also available to tenants, dedicated to making occupier’s lives easier and healthier.

Currently home to IBM, Sesame Banking Group, Reassured and AA Projects, Canning O’Neill and Savills have been appointed as letting agents to market the new-look space.

The extension and renovation were delivered by local company, Contract Services. The Northern-based team were predominantly from Manchester and included architects, Garnett Netherwood, interior design was by Jolie Studios. Hilton Moran provided M&E services, AKT was the structural engineer and Rex Proctor project managed the redevelopment.

::

Manchester-based property investment and development company Glenbrook has announced two lettings at No. 1 Temple Square in Liverpool.

Digital design company, Darkhorse Design, has taken 1,225 sq ft, while Studio Coact, also a digital branding and marketing consultancy, has taken 861 sq ft. Both companies will occupy suites on the second floor on new five-year leases. These deals leave 6,638 sq ft of recently refurbished space available across the four floors of the building.

The building comprises 18,846 sq ft high quality office accommodation and is home to a diverse business community including Parker Kelly Financial Services, Connex Education and Thomas Associates.

Chris Lloyd, investment director at Glenbrook, said: “The SME market continues to remain fairly robust with businesses seeing the value of being based in the city centre.

“We have recently appointed Momentum as the managing agent for the building, who, as both occupiers and managers of the building, have been engaged to provide a best in class, tenant-first approach to the provision of all building services at Temple Square.”

Mark Worthington, of Worthington Owen, said: “The SME market in Liverpool is bouncing back strongly in Liverpool and 1 Temple Square caters very well for this market in that it provides characterful, yet functional, space within a well managed building in a great location and we expect the remaining suites to let up well throughout the remainder of 2021.”

Worthington Owen and CBRE are the retained letting agents for Temple Square. Quoting rental for the office space is £15.50 per sq ft.

::

Flintshire Retail Park

Hollins Murray Group (HMG) has welcomed a number of new tenants to Flintshire Retail Park over the past 12 months. The announcement comes after the long term owner completed a £2m extension to create an additional 40,000 sq ft.

Greggs (1,585 sq ft), Sainsbury’s (24,991 sq ft), Sports Direct (8,195 sq ft) and Food Warehouse (11,177 sq ft) have all taken new 10-year leases. Card Factory (1,574 sq ft), Home Bargains (25,000 sq ft), and B&M (29,000 sq ft) have signed up. These deals mean three units remain available ranging from 3,000 sq ft up to 25,000 sq ft

Josh Moores, surveyor at HMG, said: “Flintshire Retail Park has been a long term hold for HMG and represents our largest retail asset within the portfolio. Over the last 15 years we have continually invested through new development and refurbishment to attract and retain occupiers and ensure the park continues to be the dominant retail destination locally.”

Craig Hudson, partner at CSP Retail, joint letting agents for the scheme with Legat Owen, said: “Like many retail schemes, Flintshire Retail Park has seen the inevitable churn with the departure of occupiers such as Carpet Right and Littlewoods, but our proactive approach to asset management has meant we have successfully brought in new tenants and repositioned the scheme to provide existing occupiers with the appropriately sized unit to support their growth and maximise the park’s value.”

Josh added: “The scheme benefits from unrestricted open A1 planning consent, including food and as the primary retail location for the town, the remaining available space would be ideally suited to a discount supermarket retailer to complement the existing tenant mix and would, undoubtedly, appeal to customers within the park’s catchment area.”

Located six miles north of Mold and 12 miles west of Chester, Flintshire Retail Park comprises 121,655 sq ft of open retail warehouse space. The scheme benefits from a 460-space car park and is minutes from the railway station with a direct line to Holyhead to the west, Chester and onwards to London to the east. Quoting rental is from £10 per sq ft.

Bennett Real Estate Consultancy represented Home Bargains. Mason Owen advised Food Warehouse and Greggs. Barker Proudlove advised Card Factory.

::

Noel Sharpe

A retail park on the edge of Bolton town centre is set to be rejuvenated to help position Greater Manchester as a centre of green innovation.

Greenworks is a Bolton at Home project delivered in partnership with Bolton charity Urban Outreach. It is the new name for a site transformation at Trinity Retail Park, based off the A666 (St Peter’s Way).

The social housing provider acquired retail units and land at the retail park in December to turn into a community-focused green technology and skills hub. The aim is to help achieve a sustainable net zero carbon future and support people into jobs in the construction and energy sectors.

Urban Outreach also invested in the site last year to secure its humanitarian food storage facility located there, and its food distribution service. The charity also wants to use the space for food growing to help reduce the level of food poverty locally, hydroponics and food recycling.

Plans to start transforming the existing retail units at the site are being progressed. They include developing a training centre for people to learn the latest skills in green technologies, which will become commonplace in retrofitting and the building of homes and commercial properties.

The plans will also explore building a modular training house to help people develop their trades in a real environment. And a range of office, meeting and networking spaces are planned to support companies and start-up businesses that specialise in the low carbon industry.

Greenworks will operate as a not-for-profit enterprise, and any surplus generated from the commercial rents will be reinvested back into local community projects such as helping people back into employment. The first phase of development will take place later this year. It includes initial works to convert the space into a training facility and install three new training rigs to deliver technical training.

External funding is being sought to further accelerate the transformation of the site into a full centre of excellence with sustainable green technologies.

Noel Sharpe, deputy group chief executive at Bolton at Home and chair of the Bolton Vision Partnership’s Economic Prosperity Group, said: “We need to make changes now if we’re to cut carbon emissions and hit the government’s target of net zero by 2050.

“For the housing sector, this means retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient and implementing new ways of working to reduce emissions and create sustainable energy. We want to move quickly, with a space where people can learn how to install and maintain these technologies, so that more tenants and residents across the region can benefit from environmentally friendly homes in the near future.”

She added: “Over the next few weeks, we’re asking over a thousand businesses what they need to move towards a greener future, which will also help us understand how Greenworks could help them.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close