L&G ready to kick off £20m investment at One Piccadilly
The investor is seeking to upgrade the 160,000 sq ft Manchester office as BNY Mellon gets ready to depart.
Legal & General is to invest £20m refurbishing One Piccadilly, adding a rooftop terrace, and improving the entrance, for which planning was recently approved. Work is expected to begin in July and take 12 months.
The scheme sees the building, which L&G has owned for 12 years, become the latest large-scale refurbishment project in Manchester, joining the likes of AM Alpha’s Rylands Building and Parthena Reys’ One Hardman Boulevard.
One Piccadilly, which includes Mott MacDonald on its tenant roster, will soon have three vacant floors once BNY Mellon departs. The bank is moving to 4 Angel Square in NOMA.
The refurbishment is aimed at attracting modern occupiers to the building, which overlooks the soon-to-be-redeveloped Piccadilly Gardens. The programme of works will also target improved sustainability credentials and pivot the building to an all-electric heating system.
Rob Codling head of commercial funds at L&G, said: “As long-term investors in Manchester, we remain committed to supporting the city’s continued growth and evolution.
“One Piccadilly is a landmark building in a key gateway location, and its transformation will complement the wider regeneration of Piccadilly Gardens which is so important to the city centre’s future.
“Now that planning approval is secured, we are focused on moving into delivery and working with the project team to create a workplace that brings lasting value for occupiers and the wider area.”
JLL and Savills are joint letting agents for the refurbished workspace. The wider project team includes Colliers as project manager, DLG Architects, and interior designer Ekho Studio.
James Devany, head of office agency in the North West at JLL, said: “One Piccadilly represents exactly the type of opportunity the Manchester office market needs. Demand for best quality office space remains strong, particularly in highly connected city centre locations with excellent amenities and transport links.
“The repositioning of existing assets such as this will play an important role in helping address the shortage of high-quality supply, while delivering the sustainability credentials and workplace experience occupiers increasingly expect – helping to underpin Manchester’s ongoing growth and continued strong inward investment.”
£20mil, for a refurb of a ~20 year old building? Can’t be right surely.
That’s a lot of polish.
By Anonymous
Ideally this would be removed and the Gardens made complete again
By GetItBuilt!
The whole City Tower complex, the location of the transport interchanges, the pavilions and this building need demolishing to actually sort out Piccadilly Gardens – they all loom over the space making it feel claustrophobic and unsettling. Probably sounds a bit drastic but these small tweaks are unlikely to be enough to improve the area – it needs a sledgehammer approach.
By Anonymous
Better to invest £20M to demolish and return the garden to the people.
By Anonymous
Number 10 North ?
By Peter Chapman
Didn’t JLL leave the building?
By Anonymous
Agree with others this should be demolished and returned to the public space makes you wonder how it was ever approved in the first place
By Anonymous
If I remember City Council was short of cash and they sold this to pocket the money .
Everyone is right he should be demolished since City Council has so much cash now I can afford it
By Anonymous
Given the timescale for the Sometime/Never redevelpment on Gt Ancoats Boulevard nee St, maybe this might be the temporary, or not so temporary, answer to Burnham’s No10Nth HQ? It may even mean that the Piccadilly Gardens might actually turn out to be worth the effort and the cost. After all, which self respecting Mandarin would want to look out over little more than a midden?
By Cynical Bystander