Channel 4 signs on for St Michael’s
All of the office space at the forthcoming £120m Manchester office block from Gary Neville’s Relentless Developments has now been pre-let.
Channel 4 has taken a 10-year lease for 12,293 sq ft at St Michael’s eighth floor, sharing half of the floor with Pinsent Mason. When the building completes later this year, Channel 4 will relocate from its current Manchester office at 82 King Street.
The lease marks a substantial increase in take-up for Channel 4, which will more than double its city footprint from the current 5,000 sq ft it occupies.
“This is a really special moment for Channel 4 as we continue our significant momentum to grow our presence across the UK,” said Alex Mahon, chief executive of the broadcaster.
“Channel 4 has always led the way in representation and now we are going even further,” Mahon continued. “Manchester has always been a really important base for Channel 4, and we’re excited to be working with Gary Neville and his team at Relentless to grow our presence in this great city.”
No1 St Michael is being delivered by Relentless and US investor KKR, with main contractor Bowmer + Kirkland on site.
The building has proven popular, breaking city rent records twice over the past 12 months and achieving the city’s current headline rent: £44/sq ft.
A rent has not been disclosed for Channel 4, however, Relentless owner Neville did state that St Michael’s had broken the city’s rental record “no less than three times”. He described this as “a huge achievement”.
Neville also said: “We’re really pleased to sign Channel 4 to the last remaining office suite at No.1. The broadcaster has a strong reputation for bold and creative content and it justifiably joins the portfolio of highly-renowned brands here at St Michael’s.”
The football star-turned-developer also teased that news will be forthcoming on the only remaining vacancy at No1 St Michaels – a ground-floor food and beverage unit. Relentless is in final negotiations for the space, he said.
In addition to Channel 4 and Pinsent Mason, tenants at No1 St Michaels include microchip designer Arm, law firm Hill Dickinson, financial intelligence company S&P Global, and flexible workspace provider Gilbanks. Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Chotto Matte is set to occupy the rooftop.
The Channel 4 deal saw Relentless and KKR represented by Will Lewis at OBI Property. Joe Rigby of CBRE acted for the broadcaster. Legal advice for the deal was given by Kuits Solicitors.
No1 St Michaels is due to be net zero in operation and delivery, according to Relentless and KKR. The joint venture is targeting a BREEAM Outstanding and NABERS five-star rating. The nine-floor office block has been designed by Hodder + Partners.
No1 St Michaels is just one half of the broader £400m St Michael’s project. The second half, a residential skyscraper, is also under construction and has also been designed by Hodder + Partners. Relentless has partnered with Salboy for this phase of the scheme, with Domis Construction handling the build. The apartment and hotel complex is set to complete in 2027.
Wow, kick in the teeth for Leeds.
By Clag
Hi Julia,
The office building, Phase 1, at St. Michael’s has not been designed by SOM!! It was designed by Hodder+Partners, including the tower. We secured the planning consent, and it is being delivered by Hodder+Partners working with B&K. SOM was briefly engaged by Laing O’Rourke post planning but the project reverted to ourselves when B&K was engaged. Hodder+Partners is also delivering Phase 2 with Salboy and Domis. I would be grateful for a correction please.
Best regards
Stephen
By Stephen Hodder
Hi Stephen! This has been fixed. My sincere apologies to you and your team for the error! – Julia
By Julia Hatmaker
Excellent news and an excellent development, this has set a new bar for developments in Manchester. Hats off to all involved.
By Bob
Good on Manchester they just get on with it no endless public consultations and restrictions.
By Anonymous
Love the development even if my love for Channel 4 is rather less.
By Anonymous
Impressive location especially when Albert square and the Town Hall are completed and open again.
By Tom
Clag, Leeds is Channel 4’s HQ, this is merely a relocation of it’s Manchester office. Manchester tried so hard to get Channel 4 to move to Manchester by taking them to Mackie Mayor, not realising that the execs there would think the area around there was a dump.
By Anonymous
Tom
Clag, Leeds is Channel 4’s HQ, this is merely a relocation of it’s Manchester office. Manchester tried so hard to get Channel 4 to move to Manchester by taking them to Mackie Mayor, not realising that the execs there would think the area around there was a dump.
October 14, 2024 at 3:09 pm
By Anonymous
If you think that area is a dump, Leeds is considerably worse.
By Anonymous
Oh dear Anonymous 3.09, please don’t let rage cloud common sense. This is excellent news and a wonderful development, celebrate that.
By Anonymous
Channel 4 realises the error it made, by not relocating to MediaCity. Instead of going to the largest media complex in Europe, where the BBC, ITV, Granada and all the small media businesses which have congregated there are, they are now stuck in the outpost of Leeds. Perhaps this is the start of a rethink. The original decision, was a political one. Perhaps a practical one is now required.
By Elephant
@Anon – I’d say more than doubling their floorspace from 5k, to near 13k says a little different…
By Clag
I don`t see the point of all these regional tv outposts as the news can be reach everyone from London, also all the money wasted ferrying staff up to Leeds, Mcr,etc to present these programmes is plain stupid, the money wasted could be better used on other things.
By Anonymous
I don`t see the point of all these regional tv outposts as the news can be reach everyone from London, also all the money wasted ferrying staff up to Leeds, Mcr,etc to present these programmes is plain stupid, the money wasted could be better used on other things.
Because the news doesn’t represent the whole of the UK. They could keep gov decision making centralised in London too but how does someone in London know how to make investment decisions regionally.
By Anonymous
Channel 4 went to Leeds because the office is literally right outside the door of the station meaning they can squirrel back to London more easily.
By Loganberry
@Anonymous its amazing that you have a deep understating of the Chanel 4 P&L and how much their labor/ talent costs never mind the property element. Were you part of the decision making process? The mere fact that London office costs are in some cases 4 times higher than the best kit in the north shows that this possibly might be a good thing and a better way to spend money as there is proper digital talent in the north. People will find a negative in anything these days.
By Anonymous
@October 15, 2024 at 10:08 am
By Anonymous
Hear hear
By Rye
I see ITV have dropped their early morning regional bulletins during Good Morning Britain, it was just tokenism and the NW bulletin was rushed through and mostly trivia. Meanwhile BBC NW Tonight is overwhelmingly Manchester centred news items and I doubt is of any interest to folk in Preston, Lancaster, or Carlisle for example.
By Anonymous
@October 15, 2024 at 10:42 am
By Anonymous
Carlisle is covered by the ITV Border region. But fair point about Preston and Lancaster – ITV North West coverage is very Manchester-centric.
Regionalism is a good thing though – we need more (not less) of this.
By Anonymous
The Channel 4 Manchester office sells advertising, although the current one, which opened before the move to Leeds, supposedly has some additional hotdesks and meeting rooms.
Them moving now, to the most expensive space in Manchester, when they are apparently in financial trouble and having to sell off the London HQ, isn’t anything to do with the decision to put all the other stuff in Leeds.
By Anonymous
On Channel 4 news it`s kind of mad to see them hand over from London to Leeds just to read out a piece of news that could easily have been read out in London. Then there`s the regional news programmes trying to manipulate an item from the main national news and turn it into a local issue, it`s reminiscent of Monty Pythons News for Parrots , saying ” no parrots where injured today when a bus mounted the pavement”.
By Anonymous
Nice office though even if Channel 4 is awful.
By Anonymous