Pioneering wellbeing cafe commits to 13-year lease on new Hilton House space
Manchester-based property group CERT has concluded a 13-year lease agreement with Feel Good Club at its Hilton House site in the city centre.
The wellbeing cafe company has signed up for a further 1,192 sq ft of space next door to its existing premises in Hilton House. The business opened in summer 2020 in 3,186 sq ft of space on the ground floor of the Northern Quarter building.
The new deal sees Feel Good Club take its total space to 4,378 sq ft, taking over the whole retail unit on the ground floor.
The additional space is anticipated to be used to expand the coffee shop’s kitchen and its headquarters. Feel Good Club has appointed Workspace Design and Build to complete the works, with the project anticipated to be completed by the end of this year.
Feel Good Club co-founder Aimie Lawlor-Skillen, said: “We are super excited to be growing the club only two years into business, the kitchen expansion means we can create our own baked goods, grab and go, offer evening food and extend our current brunch menu.”
She added: “The front of the unit is going to be our office for the brand to stock our merchandise and create content. To have the whole of the brand under one roof , in such an amazing building ,makes us feel so good.”
Designed by renowned 1960s architect, Richard Seifert, the brutalist building Hilton House has been a hidden gem at the end of Hilton Street for decades and with the developer and owner CERT’s extensive refurbishment project the building was brought back to life in 2020.
The refurbishment, which aimed to turn the building into a creative workspace, was carried out by Ancoats-based contractor Armitage Construction and designed by Buttress Architects. The works retained the building’s original features including parquet floors discovered under old carpet, and terracotta ceilings hidden under plasterboard were lovingly restored.
Hilton House is an inclusive space which aligns with its tenants’ values, said CERT, and in the past couple of years both CERT and Feel Good Club have supported various events in Hilton House, such as New Normal and Manchester Pride which both brought people together and promoted diversity and inclusion in the community.
Regular exhibition shows were also established in Hilton House reception that showcase and support the local and up and coming artists.
Howard Lord, managing director of CERT Property, said: “It is a great pleasure to see Feel Good Club expanding into this space and is a testament to what the two founders, Aimie and Kiera, have built that a local business such as this has been able to launch during the midst of the pandemic and just two years later be expanding.
“The offering is the perfect complement to the community feel we have sought to develop at Hilton House and I’m sure the expanded venue will be a huge success.”
Hilton House’s first tenant, broadband provider Telcom, left the building last July and relocated into a larger space for its growing business. The 3,649 sq ft space on the fifth floor is currently available as a fully furnished office space.
Other current occupiers in the building include CERT’s headquarter on the fourth floor, Grayce, a consultancy company, Softwire, a bespoke software engineering and digital design company that moved into the second floor in the summer, Hawkins Brown, an internationally-renowned award winning architectural practice, and Train Urban, a private personal training and class facility situated in the basement.
