M&G secures double deal at 110,000 sq ft Aviary

Law firm Latham & Watkins and accountant Forvis Mazars have taken a combined 69,000 sq ft across five floors at the recently refurbished office building on Manchester’s Mosley Street.

Aviary is the result of a £12.5m redevelopment of 58 Mosley Street, the 100,000 sq ft former Slater & Gordon HQ, which M&G acquired in 2022 for £50m.

Developed by Ask Real Estate, the scheme now has its first two tenants, both from the professional services sector.

Accountancy firm Forvis Mazars will relocate to 30,000 sq ft in Aviary from One St Peter’s Square.

Law firm Latham & Watkins will relocate from Marsden Street to M&G’s new building, taking 39,000 sq ft.

Both firms have signed 10-year leases with no breaks. L&W is taking the top three floors and paying in excess of £40/sq ft. Forvis Mazars is taking two floors and paying £39.50/ sq ft, Place understands.

CBRE and Sixteen are the agents for Aviary.

All parties were contacted for comment.

Ask claims refurbishing the building resulted in a 69% reduction in carbon emissions compared to a demo/rebuild scenario.

The refurb, carried out by TSK, has delivered a new Booth Street entrance, a communal roof terrace with a pavilion overlooking Manchester Town Hall, a gym with multi-purpose exercise studio, and a business lounge.

In a market of increasingly constrained Grade A supply, Aviary appears well-placed to be the landing spot for emerging requirements.

The scheme also benefits from completing ahead of other major refurb projects at the Rylands Building on Market Street and One Hardman Boulevard in Spinningfields, which are both on site.

Other recent large-scale refurbishments to have completed in Manchester include Credit Suisse Havelock on Bridgewater Street, which is under offer to the GPA in its entirety.