New owner for Manchester’s Arkwright House

Hillcrest Private Equity Real Estate has acquired the 95,000 sq ft office from a Luxembourg-based fund.

Investor Hillcrest, which was founded last year, confirmed its purchase of Arkwright House but would not disclose the purchase price.

The Manchester office building, which fronts Parsonage Gardens, last changed hands in 2014 when the Luxembourg fund, then managed by Catalyst Capital, acquired it out of receivership for £11m.

Prior to that, the building was owned by Manchester-based Wrather Group but it defaulted on a £19.5m loan against the property and one other, Dock Office in Salford, and the loan was called in by Lloyds.

Arkwright House – home to flexible workspace provider Orega among others – is a grade two-listed building designed in a neo-classical style by local architect, Harry Fairhurst, for the English Sewing Cotton Company and completed in 1937.

The purchase is Hillcrest’s first in the North West.

Other assets within Hillcrest’s portfolio and listed on its website include the premier House office building in Twickenham, a Morrisons supermarket in Leeds, and land around Deptford Bridge DLR station in south east London.

Hillcrest is a joint venture between Sun Capital Partners and Deva Capital with £250m to invest in UK real estate over the next two years.