Funding boost for second phase at St Michael’s

A £127.5m loan provided through CBRE will support completion of a 47-storey tower, including 217 apartments, 75,000 sq ft of offices and a 162-bed hotel operated under Marriott’s high-end W brand.

Global real estate advisor CBRE said it had provided the loan on behalf of retained lending mandates, to Salboy, developer of this phase of the £400m St Michael’s project with Gary Neville’s Relentless group.

The hotel will become only the third W Hotel in the UK, following London and Edinburgh. The apartments will be branded as W Residences, a UK first for that brand outside of London.

Along with three basement levels, there will be a ground floor and 43 upper floors.

The W deal was signed in October 2023, with an announcement following a few months later that Fred Done Property Trading Group would put £185m into the tower’s development. Done set up Salboy with Simon Ismail in 2014.

Domis is currently on site with St Michael’s phase two, with completion expected in 2027.

The project sits adjacent to the first phase – the £120m, 200,000 sq ft No. 1 St Michael’s office block, where serviced operator Gilbanks will next month throw open the doors on 34,000 sq ft over a floor and a half. The building is fully let. Relentless worked with US investment giant KKR on phase one.

CBRE Lending originated, structured and executed the phase two loan on behalf of its lending partners.

Andrew Antoniades, head of lending at CBRE, said: “We were delighted to have worked on securing a loan from our partners for this pioneering scheme in the heart of Manchester. It typifies a truly mixed-use, future-proofed development that will benefit the local community through the provision of leisure, retail, residential and office space.”

Simon Ismail, co-founder and managing director of Salboy, added: “This is a fantastic new lending partnership for us, which marks the sixth loan we have received from CBRE Lending, through its retained lending programmes.

“St Michael’s will see the transformation of an underused area at the heart of the city into a new world-class destination for work, rest and play.”