Property round-up: Brightsolid; Roundhouse; Incognito; Embassy Village; Drees & Sommer
One of Scotland’s key cloud services companies has announced its first expansion into England with the opening of a new office in Manchester.
The new facility is based in Clockwise Offices, Linley House, Dickinson Street, and will lead to the creation of a number of jobs.
Established more than 25 years ago as part of DC Thomson & Co Group, Brightsolid is one of Scotland’s main providers of managed hybrid cloud and cyber security services for SMEs and public sector organisations.
Some of its current customers include Aberdeenshire Council, Albert Bartlett, Capita, Dundee City Council, Network ROI, Shell, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and University of Dundee.
The new city centre Manchester office will provide a strategic location to grow Brightsolid’s current client portfolio, with the aim of creating a 50% increase in sales and technical service staff in the next two years.
Brightsolid’s Chief Commercial Officer, Alan Gardiner, said: “Brightsolid works in collaboration with customers to create unique cloud solutions that are tailored to each organisation. We don’t do one-size-fits-all.
“It starts with our dedicated tier III designed data centres, ensuring our clients’ critical IT infrastructure is secure, while providing industry-leading accessibility, scalability and connectivity. As one of the UK’s foremost hybrid cloud experts, we also help hundreds of organisations unlock the power, flexibility and cost-effectiveness of cloud.
“And with security at the top of most people’s agendas these days, we deliver some of the UK’s best MDR, SOC and BaaS services at affordable prices.”
He added: “While Brightsolid is already recognised as one of Scotland’s leading cloud services providers, the new Manchester office will be seeking to work with public and private sector organisations across the North of England, while also spearheading the expansion of our service offering across the UK.”
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Momentum Blackburn
Roundhouse has completed the first phase of its latest Momentum site in Blackburn and has only two available to purchase or let.
Phase one saw 14 units being built, of which 10 were 1,000 sq ft and four were 850 sq ft. When the site has been completed, it will see 68 new commercial units providing 24,000 sq ft of commercial space on a 1.56-hectare site.
The site lies next to Guide Reservoir and opposite Shadsworth Business Park. It will be accessed off Haslingden Road close to junction five of the M65 and includes provision for 193 parking spaces, motorcycle parking and cycle storage.
The Shadsworth site will be the fourth Momentum project and follows previous developments in Preston and Buckshaw Village, near Chorley.
Managing director of Roundhouse Properties, Jeremy Lefton, said: “Despite the economic uncertainty over the past year, we have seen a healthy demand for units at our Blackburn site, and we’re now focusing on starting phase two that will see 20 units constructed by the end of May 2025.
“With the UK economy looking like it’s back on track, we expect that demand for phase two to be better than phase one, and once we have most of those units tenanted or sold, we’ll then look to develop the final phase of the site by 2026.”
He added: “We developed the Momentum concept to provide growing businesses with affordable and flexible space, and it’s an idea that has gone down very well with SMEs across the region.”
Danny Pinkus at Pinkus & Co and Neil Weaver, of Taylor Weaver, are joint agents for the scheme.
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Incognito Manchester team
Commercial interior design studio, Incognito, has completed its move into Manchester and opened its new studio on the second floor of the Old Law Library on Kennedy Street.
Previously located in Knutsford, Incognito has fitted out its new home in the heart of the Manchester Albert Square Conservation Area to provide a city centre base for its 14-strong team, and to be more accessible for its global client base.
Formed in 2017 by Simon Millington, and with Howard Powsney joining in 2018, Incognito offers workplace consultancy and interior design services for end user clients including l Nestle, Hill Dickinson, Kraft Heinz and Brabners as well as property portfolio design services to landlords and fund management clients such as Ashtrom, Epic and Northspring.
Powsney said: “Having delivered a project on the ground floor earlier this year for Solus Ceramics, we knew the Old Law Library has soul. When we first visited the space, we instantly knew it was right for us – it had character and opportunity, it was full of natural light and felt like the ideal place to create a collaborative studio for the business.
“The icing on the cake is the fact that we are surrounded by many of our clients, project and consultant partners, and we are already seeing the advantage of this.”
Millington said: “To anyone that has said the office is dead, I would say come and see our new studio. The benefits we are seeing in terms of learning, relationships, teamwork and culture is already significant.
“The vibrancy within the space makes the studio a really great place to work and will enable us to continue our steady growth plans and unlock the potential for Incognito in years to come.”
Incognito’s latest instructions will see the team lead the design for Hill Dickinson’s new Manchester office set to be located on the top floor of the iconic No. 1 St Michaels development and the re-positioning of 86 Deansgate for Zenith Real Estate Partners.
The Old Law Library, which is owned by Grade A Alternative, is now fully let with all the suites being comprehensively refurbished by the landlord and occupiers.
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The team behind a pioneering homelessness project in Manchester city centre is gearing up to start on site.
This summer will see long-standing efforts to deliver Embassy Village – a purpose-built community for the city region’s homeless and vulnerable men – finally paying off. Once complete, Embassy Village will transform the site below 22 railway arches on land which has been provided by Peel Waters.
Located next to the Bridgewater Canal and River Irwell, Embassy Village will create a community of 40 new homes with wrap-around support for those who need it most.
Since planning consent, the focus has been on a major fundraising drive to make the project a reality. A £3.5m donation from the Moulding Foundation was further boosted by £250,000 from Garfield Weston Foundation and £100,000 from Benefact Trust.
It means the first phase of the village can now begin. The coming months will see a contractor appointed, who will then mobilise to get work underway on site.
Sid Williams, of Embassy, said: “Once open Embassy Village will provide homes, support and stability for people when they need it most. Our aim is for it to be a community where residents, with support, can re-build their lives and break the cycle of homelessness that people so often get trapped in.
“We’ve got a brilliant and busy few months ahead as our vision for Embassy Village becomes a reality and people can expect a flurry of activity this summer. We’ll soon be able to confirm the contractor we’ll be partnering with for the build and we are aiming to get going on site this summer.”
With completion slated for 2025, Embassy Village will feature high quality homes, a village hall and outdoor green spaces, including mini allotments to grow vegetables and a multi-use sports area.
There’s no let-up in fundraising activity however, as inflation and spiralling material costs have put pressure on the project. Embassy is now working with the business community, individuals and the Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity to secure funds for the long term village running costs.
A raft of organisations and businesses have supported the project to get to this point, with funding, services and material donations. They include: Abacus, AEW Architects, Alexander Dawn, Arcadis, Benefact Trust, Blaze Marketing, Cardinal Maritime, CDD Consult, CDM Services, Connectus, Crookes Walker Consultants, Crown Paint, Cundall, Curtins, Daikin, Deloitte. Derek Gough Associates, Element Sustainability, Engineering Innovation, Engineering Integration, Euan Kellie, Far Logistics, Fisher Acoustics, Flair Foundation, Font Comms, Garfield Weston Foundation, Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity, Greater Manchester Police Safer By Design team, Hill Dickinson, Hollywood Monster, Ian Farmer Associates, Indigo Lithoprint, Jewson, Jon Matthews Architects, LOFT, Mente, OFR, One Agency, Our Studio, Paul Butler Associates, Planit IE, Prestige Beds, Shoosmiths, Sigma Capital, Skelton Property Consultancy, Squire Patton Boggs, Sunbelt Rentals, Sweco, Temperature Control, The Environment Partnership (TEP), The Message Trust, Wardell Armstrong.
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Built environment and construction consultant, Drees & Sommer, has been appointed by Manchester-based Great Places Housing Group to its Innovation Chain North (ICN) framework of contractors and consultants for the next four years.
The £1.5bn framework has been designed to support delivery of new homes across the north of England, not only to support Great Places’ affordable development programme but also other housing associations operating across the North of England.
One of the 103 contractors and consultants from the 206 that applied to be successful, Manchester-based Drees & Sommer was selected based on technical competence, price and commitment to social value.
Mike Soffe, Director at Drees & Sommer UK, said: “This appointment to the ICN Framework aligns with our mission to deliver high quality, sustainable housing solutions while contributing positively to the communities we serve.
“Through the framework, we look forward to collaborating with Great Places and other ICN members to achieve our collective ambition in improving the provision of affordable housing across the UK.”
Joanne Whitehead, Great Places’ Development Performance Manager, responsible for managing the framework, said she is confident that Drees & Sommer will be able to work with the organisation and the clients of ICN in delivering the sector’s extensive development ambitions in the North.
The new £1.5bn framework will run until June 2028.
