Brown Street scheme lands co-working operator

London-based co-working start-up Work.Life is to open its first regional site at Boultbee Brooks Real Estate’s 30 Brown Street, Manchester, taking 12,540 sq ft on the ground and first floors on a 10-year lease.

This will be the second time Work.Life has collaborated with BBRE, already being operational at the White Building in Reading. The Manchester site will be Work.Life’s first in the regions and seventh overall.

Work.Life’s model is to target ground floors, activating developments on behalf of institutional landlords. It focuses on occupying spaces smaller than more established names in the market, such as WeWork, which more typically operate at 50,000 sq ft.

By being in place soon after completion of construction, its facilities act as a marketing tool – it said that the White Building was 70% full within six months, well ahead of schedule. Existing Work.Life tenants include fashion brand Dr. Martens, dating app Grindr, television channel MTV and global accountancy EY.

The Manchester building, now known as Core, is set to open in August following completion of a redevelopment being project managed by OBI Property.

David Kosky, co-founder of Work.Life, said: “We are delighted to have found a partner in BBRE that understands the value that our ground floor strategy can bring to their new developments.

“We feel expanding into the flourishing regional cities was the logical next step for us as they are exciting markets that continue to grow economically and culturally year on year.”

30 Brown St 2 Exterior Day Full Res

James Whitcher, asset management director at Boultbee Brooks, said: As a company, Work.Life understand the value creation from having an existing, active community within a building that can drive value and lettings.

“After the unrivalled success of the White Building, we thought it made sense to use Work.Life’s unique approach to driving occupancy at Core.”

Work.Life are set to announce a further three sites in 2018 and a full regional roll out in 2019. Boultbee Brooks were advised by joint letting agents OBI and CBRE.

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