Free Trade Hall fetched £37.5m
MANCHESTER’S iconic Free Trade Hall building – home to the city’s 263-bed five-star Radisson Edwwardian Hotel – fetched £37.5m when it was sold last year.
The figure is revealed in a document filed at Companies House by Grant Thornton which handled the receivership of Free Trade Hall Hotel, the company which owned the property.
It was acquired by the hotel’s operator, the Edwardian Group, which paid the asking price.
The document shows the freehold on the property was valued at £22.5m, with plant, machinery, equipment and furniture adding another £11.4m. Items such as goodwill, intellectual property and stock accounted for the balance.
Administrator Matt Dunham told TheBusinesDesk: “There’s a lot of interest in the real, quality assets like the Free Trade Hall. It was the same with some on King Street last year and other assets we have at the moment.
“But if it’s secondary or tertiary it’s very difficult, the value just isn’t holding.”
Although Christie & Co was appointed to sell the building the Edwardian Group made an offer before it went on the open market.
“The agents said that in this market it was a great deal,” said Mr Dunham.
The sale meant Free Trade Hall’s biggest creditor, Lloyds Banking Group, got its loan of £31.2m back, plus interest of £1.7m. Secondary creditors Carillion and Laing O’Rourke received £4.1m of a total £9.8m owed.
The hotel, designed by Roger Stephenson Architects, retained the original building’s exterior but not the performance halls inside where Bob Dylan was called “Judas” for playing electric and the Sex Pistols played a landmark gig in 1976.
