Office campus brought to market with offers set to start at £55m
Manchester office campus, Universal Square, is being brought to market, with offers sought above £54.68m, which equates to a 7.15% net initial yield.
The investment properties team at CBRE Manchester is handling the sale.
Universal Square occupies a 6.5 acre site, offering 255,000 sq ft of office accommodation across five inter-linked buildings.
Associated facilities include a gym, restaurant, meeting rooms and business centre, with more than 830 car parking spaces.
Situated within a 10-minute walk of Piccadilly rail station, the site also benefits from the billions of pounds-worth of development work taking place nearby, including Land Securities/U+I’s £1.5bn Mayfield development, HS2 and the residential-led Ardwick Green redevelopment proposals.
It serves a community of more than 2,500 people from a range of tech, finance, education and creative sectors and offers diverse and flexible accommodation able to cater for any occupiers needs.
The vendor, MCR Property, has transformed the building over recent years, leading to an exceptionally high occupancy rate over the past two years which is currently 98%.
Key occupiers include Carfinance247, a £45m-turnover business based in around 38,000 sq ft, SoftCat, a £1bn-turnover company which occupies circa 28,000 sq ft, and Global Banking School, a £10m-turnover fast growing education provider which occupies approximately 40,000 sq ft of space.
A new owner will have the opportunity to introduce a newly designed reception, further amenity, and external public realm space into the campus and establish a new rental tone within the building reflective of the headline rentals achieved on recent lettings.
Colin Thomasson, executive director, investment properties, CBRE, said: “Universal Square offers excellent investment potential through its highly competitive rental position and strong performance, as well as great tenant retention.
“The campus has secured in excess of 135,000 sq ft of lease re-gears and lettings in the last two years alone, which is testament to its attractiveness to occupiers. The value-add potential is significant and we look forward to entering into discussions with interested parties.”
