MIPIM | Schemes can’t come quick enough for Bywater in Manchester
Having recently secured funding for a retrofit office project at 35 Fountain Street, the developer is on the hunt for more opportunities as it seeks to build on its foothold in the city with more workspace and homes.
“This year I would like to find another office project in Manchester,” said Paddy O’Gorman, chief executive at Bywater.
The Fountain Street scheme, which GMI was recently appointed to deliver, will bring 87,000 sq ft to market across seven floors, including a two-storey timber upwards extension.
Bywater’s commitment to timber – it delivered the Paradise building, the UK’s largest mass timber scheme – is hard wired into its DNA since Sumitomo Forestry Co, a Japanese timber construction specialist, bought into the business in 2024.
Top end sustainability credentials and a prime location in a growing city leave O’Gorman in “no doubt” the Fountain Street building will be a success once complete.
“We love Manchester, our Japanese colleagues love Manchester. It’s got this great vibrancy and energy but obviously, statistically, you can see it.
“I’m looking forward to building out Fountain Street, and look forward to getting rented, but meanwhile, we are working hard try and find another investment.”
This is proving tricky.
“We’re really struggling,” O’Gorman admits.
“I know investment volumes have gone up but it’s still very low base. There’s not a lot of churn. We’re not seeing as much activity as we’d like to see or opportunities.”
Perhaps due to the lack of opportunities in the office market, Bywater is planning a push into the living sector, where demand is high.
The business currently has four resi schemes on its books and is eyeing rapid growth.
“We’re trying to do five living deals this year,” said O’Gorman, who has highlighted Manchester as one of 12 target regional cities for projects across single family, multi-family, and co-living.
“I would love to do living projects in Manchester or Greater Manchester,” he said.
“As we grow I can see us opening up an office [in the city] at some point. But we need the quantum of projects, and we’re working hard with the consultants to find us the right stuff, spending a lot of time out there ourselves.”
Like the company’s office projects, the living schemes will also lean heavily into the use of timber.
“There is no gray area at all. It has to be timber,” O’Gorman said.
By focusing on the environmental credentials of its schemes and using sustainable materials, O’Gorman hopes the developer can follow in the footsteps of Richard Walker, Bywater’s chairman and owner of supermarket chain Iceland.
“They only have a 3% market share but they’re so impactful and so loud,” he said. “They’re fundamentally making a massive change, banning plastics, banning palm oil, and we’re trying to do the same thing.
“We are currently a small company. We’ve got big growth plans. I think the change we’re making is leading the way for others.”
