AO slashes Salford office space by 80%
The online white goods retailer has significantly reduced the size of its office at Bruntwood Works’ Baskerville House to 6,000 sq ft, shedding 31,000 sq ft amid changing ways of working.
AO confirmed to Place North West that an analysis of its office requirements concluded that one floor within the Salford office building would be sufficient going forward.
The Bolton-based retailer, which holds the naming rights to Manchester Arena, signed an 11-year lease on the entire 37,000 sq ft Baskerville House in 2017.
Prior to the move, AO’s Manchester operations had been based out of City Tower and another suite within Bruntwood’s Riverside complex, of which Baskerville House is a part.
Andrew Butterworth, commercial director at Bruntwood, said: “AO remains one of our long-standing customers, and we are supporting them as they change their footprint to consolidate space, while retaining a presence in Manchester city centre. This stems from our commitment to creating thriving cities and providing businesses with flexible solutions to access high-quality workspaces.
“There’s strong demand for city centre locations, and we’ve had considerable interest in Baskerville House at Riverside, as a well-connected space with good amenities, such as a private courtyard, on-site parking, access to FORM personal training and an on-site retail offering.”
The 140,000 sq ft Riverside office complex falls within Salford City Council’s Chapel Wharf Development Framework, adopted last year.
The framework is designed to provide a cohesive vision for a 47-acre swathe of the city.
Riverside could provide “radical opportunities to redevelop part of the complex of offices, opening up links to the riverside”, according to the framework.
“Future redevelopment, either through partial or complete demolition could accommodate improved office-led development with residential accommodation integrated within,” the framework states.
WFH is the future as is the 15 minute city, not good for city centre property
By DH
@DH if the future is the 15 minute city, why is that bad for the city centre property which is already a 15 minute city and getting better as one?
By AG
Manchester is going to see this more often in the future. People are starting to choose Liverpool instead.
By Anonymous
DH, a 15 min City as the basis for local services is great, but as a basis for employment would be a very bad outcome for low income households.
By Rich X
WFH, yeah a little but not much. Also the 15 minute city means there are tens and soon hundreds of thousands actually living there. This isn’t the 1980s , the world has moved on.
By Dan Smate
This is very progressive. The same number of AO workers will use a smaller space and still come into the city at weekends. The spare space will get used for other companies who were previously limited by the available office space and the ridiculously limited public transport in Manchester. I think London’s in big trouble. The previous reasons to push talent away from where that talent lives to be in a glass box in London has gone. London had the capability for much more office space use due to their excessive public transport spend (allowing lots more people to get to their glass box at 9am). It’s looking very redundant down there and the prices of the now unnecessary ‘Head office’ commercial space and accommodation to house those forced to be there is plummeting, whilst it’s rising in the North and especially Manchester.
By Dr B
Office Environment is particularly strong in Manchester and is likely to remain so. Nice to have some flexibility though.
By Anonymous
AO, let’s go (away from Salford)
By Levelling Up Manager