Yorkshire property developer and investor makes multi-million pound sale

OPUS North, the West Yorkshire-based property developer and investor, has sold The Exchange – a mixed-use complex in Chester city centre – for £8.875m.

The 70,000 sq ft building has been bought by Knight Frank Investment Management on behalf of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group.

The Exchange, which was previously occupied by British Telecom, is based in St John’s Street, opposite the Roman Ampitheatre. Tenants include Travelodge, Marstons, Pizza Express, Optical Express and civil engineers Rambol.

The Grade A, three-storey office building, which is fully let apart from a 600 sq ft office suite, has been comprehensively refurbished by Opus North, which is backed by the Palmer Capital Development Fund I.

“The Exchange is a superb mixed-use building and its sale underlines this,” said Andrew Duncan, director of West Yorkshire-based Opus North.

“We were delighted to restore the building to its former glory and then find a buyer in a challenging market for commercial property.”

Chris Button, director at Palmer Capital, added: “This is a good example of an enlightened funder and a creative developer combining to revitalise an historic city centre”.

The agents for Opus North were GVA in Manchester, while Savills represented the purchaser.