AAM plans new Manchester office block

ABERDEEN Asset Management is revisiting a plan for a major new office block in Manchester’s Fountain Street.

TheBusinessDesk.com understands it is working up designs for the building which would occupy the site of the 50,000 sq ft Oddfellows House which sits on the corner with Marble Street.

The idea was first mooted two years ago with Terrace Hill on board as the developer. At that point the plan was for an 80,000 sq ft office building with retail and leisure space on the ground floor.

Details of the new designs are not yet known but a planning application is expected to be submitted shortly.

The block is owned by the Xerox Pension Fund and managed on its behalf by Aberdeen Asset Management. It was formerly the head office of the Manchester Oddfellows Friendly Society, but was sold to the pension fund in 2000 for around £6m.

Terrace Hill’s Manchester-based development executive Andy Lavin directed enquiries about the scheme to Aberdeen Asset Management in London which did not respond.