Bowmer & Kirkland signs for Landmark build

The construction firm has agreed a £49.6m contract with Project Beach Developments to deliver the long-awaited 178,000 sq ft office building on the site of Manchester’s former Odeon cinema.

Manchester City Council granted a new planning consent for a 14-storey building last year, and the signing of this contract enables the discharge of a planning condition that a building contract was required ahead of work starting. Demolition contractor Forshaw is now on site.

The Landmark office project first won consent in 2007 under the ownership of Manchester & Metropolitan Properties, which later brought in Hines as joint venture partner – but despite the planning permission being refreshed in 2013, the scheme never got off the ground. Since that time, major new office buildings in neighbouring St Peter’s Square have secured good deals on grade A space.

Castlebrooke, a London-based investor developer headed by ex-Carisbrooke men Neil Young and Jonathan Mitchell, bought the site in March 2016 for around £10m and is now taking the scheme forward under the Project Beach brand. The Companies House correspondence address provided by all three currently listed directors of Project Beach Developments is in the Channel Islands.

Gardiner & Theobald is the principal designer for the project, and will provide quantity surveying and project management services. The architect is Squire & Partners.

The professional team also includes Curtins as structural engineer and transport consultant, Cundall Johnston & Partners on M&E and acoustics, and NET Project Management as façade engineer. Deloitte is planning consultant. Works are scheduled to be completed by July 2019.