Ask close to hotel deal at First Street
ASK DEVELOPMENTS is close to striking a deal for the next phase of its First Street scheme in Manchester which will see it develop an international hotel.
In newly-filed accounts for the year to March the directors of Ask Developments Group said negotiations to pre-let and forward sell a “high quality hotel, intercontinental branded hotel” were at an advanced stage.
The accounts also show the business recorded a £5.2m loss on sales of £37m. Operating losses stood at around £1m but the business took a £1m hit on the sale of its Abito residential business in March to Infinity Asset Management’s property fund and Spanish developer Levitt. A net interest charge of £2m and a £1m provision against work in progress also contributed to losses.
No comparative figures are available because Ask Developments Group was only set up in August last year to allow for a reorganisation of the business. After Ask Investments secured a £105m refinancing by the Co-op Bank it was bought by Ask Developments Group for a nominal sum in a deal which saw the end of Ask’s partnership with Morgan Stanley Real Estate.
In their report the directors say the group made “excellent” progress on various schemes including the second phase a mixed-use development completed in Urmston a year ago. Half of the 13 units have been leased and 49 of 64 apartments have been sold. Progress has been made on the third phase with pre-let interest from several national retailers.
It completed a pre-let office block at Knowsley Place in Bury for Standard Life and started work on the second phase including 50,000 sq ft of offices and a 150-bed hotel. Ask also started work on the new Greater Manchester Police headquarters in Newton Heath.
