Albert Square properties sold for £16.3m
LJ Group has announced the acquisition of a portfolio of four properties in Manchester’s historic Albert Square for £16.3m.
It acquired the buildings from veteran Manchester landlord The Wrather Group.
The site, next to the council and town hall sites, will be refurbished into high quality office space with restaurants and shops on the ground floor and will incorporate co-working space for entrepreneurs.
The buildings, which together make up the whole of the northern and a large part of the southern side of the square, occupy 70,000 sq ft.
The oldest of the buildings purchased by LJ Group dates back to 1874.
Constructed by Scottish Widows and sold by them to The Wrather Group in 1974, it has been owned and maintained by Wrather for the last 40 years, along with the other three properties.
LJ Group is a privately owned multi-family office which offers direct investment, investment advisory, trust and fiduciary, and family office services to individuals, charities, trusts and foundations.
Its real estate teams have a strong track record in acquiring and transforming well-located commercial properties and advises or supervises real estate and other assets in excess of $8bn.
The purchase marks the first UK acquisition outside of London and further regional purchases are planned.
The LJ team responsible for this latest project is led by Sam Lawson Johnston, George Haddo and Lord Wei of Shoreditch.
Haddo said: “Real estate is at the core of the LJ Group proposition for investing families.
“The teams offer opportunities across the risk spectrum and this project in the centre of Manchester will sit in the middle of that mix.
“It offers our client families the potential to be part of a project to purchase iconic real estate assets to be refurbished in an imaginative and thoughtful way and then derive an attractive long term income stream, all within the historic centre of one of Britain’s most vibrant and important commercial centres.”
Wrather Group was represented by Knight Frank’s Manchester office and Hill Dickinson solicitors. LJ Group were advised by JLL’s Manchester office and Charles Russell Speechlys solicitors.
