Ask wins consent for 180,000 sq ft First Street office
Manchester City Council has approved the developer’s latest plans for the site, which has seen various iterations come forward in the last few years.
Ask Real Estate’s latest plans would see the developer create a 180,000 sq ft office on Plot 9A at First Street.
Designed by Jon Matthews Architects, the building aims to be the first in Manchester capable of achieving a minimum NABERS rating of 5.5* or above.
Other elements of the scheme include coworking space, winter gardens, outdoor roof terraces, and an exercise studio.
The 10-storey office supersedes a previous 280,000 sq ft iteration of the project, approved in 2020.
Ask opted to scale back the scheme, reducing the floorplates to 16,700 sq ft from 30,000 sq ft, in response to changing working habits.
The current design is closer to the original proposal for the site. Approval was first granted in 2018 for a 17-storey building with 160,000 sq ft of office space and a 200-bedroom Premier Inn hotel on the upper floors.
Bam is lined up as lead contractor for the project and Autotrader has signed an 80,000 sq ft pre-let for part of the building.
The latest proposals for plot 9 come 12 months after Ask revealed its intentions for One Medlock Street, a 41-storey residential development on a nearby site. A planning application for this project has not been submitted.
Underwhelmed with this compared to the previous plans. Understand office uptake might not be as prominent as it once was but this project looks very bland and uninspiring compared to the original. The whole First Street site is a blank canvas to develop a premier destination for business and leisure, even better than that we see in Spinningfields but I fear it is going to dissolve into blandness.
By Verticality
It’s as if there is no climate emergency
By Cal
Bog standard design
By Monty
Very bland. Hope first Street doesn’t become a grid of rectangular buildings
By Bob crow
Looks good, but will it actually get built this time?
By ALL