research

UK Business Parks getting better for Goodman read on

NHS North West’s Manchester medicine
19.06.09
By Jennifer Rigby

Health authority to take 50,000 sq ft at Argent and Carlyle’s Piccadilly Place

NHS North West is in negotiations to take around 50,000 sq ft at Argent and Carlyle Group’s Piccadilly Place in Manchester.

The regional health authority would move across the road from its current base at Gateway House to 3 Piccadilly Place, next to the railway station.

It is thought that the health authority has agreed terms to take 52,000 sq ft at around the quoting rent of £25/sq ft at the property, the third office building in the mixed-use Piccadilly Place scheme.

The letting will be a tonic for Argent and Carlyle, which lost out on 65,000 sq ft of lettings to other public sector bodies, among them the Highways Agency and the Government Office for the North West, after the Office of Government Commerce ruled against the moves.

If the letting completes, it will be one of the most significant in Manchester this year, and it follows two large public sector lettings, also agreed in the city in the last month.

Greater Manchester Police, which has already confirmed it will take 240,000 sq ft at Ask:Goodman’s Central Park scheme, last week signed a further exclusivity agreement with the developer, which is a joint venture between Ask Developments and Goodman. The agreement, although at an early stage, is thought to be for an additional 120,000 sq ft if the police need it.

Manchester City Council, advised by GVA Grimley, is poised to take 140,000 sq ft at Ask’s First Street for its temporary relocation while its headquarters are refurbished.

Manchester is also vying with regional cities such as Birmingham and Bristol to land the Ministry of Justice’s 250,000 sq ft requirement.

James Raven, development director of UK business parks at Goodman, said the public sector was becoming more active.

He said the letting at Central Park, ‘underlines the significant demand for business space from the public sector that is becoming an increasing trend for regional cities’.

However, several private sector occupiers are also on the hunt for space in Manchester, among them law firm DWF, KPMG and John Lewis.

While figures for first-quarter take-up in the city were low, agents suggested that Manchester was likely to meet its long-term average because of the number of large requirements in lawyers’ hands.

Lambert Smith Hampton advised NHS North West; Savills and GVA Grimley are the letting agents at Piccadilly Place; Savills is the agent at First Street with CB Richard Ellis; Lambert Smith Hampton and Cushman & Wakefield advise Goodman at Central Park.