Beech buys St James’s Square office for resi
Manchester city centre office building 11 St James’s Square has been bought by Beech Holdings for £5.27m.
The 22,374 sq ft property on John Dalton Street was acquired from Readycount, a subsidiary of stockbroker WH Ireland.
Beech will convert the upper four floors into up to 48 apartments, while the retail units at ground floor will continue to trade as normal. WH Ireland staff will occupy the offices for at least the next five months.
WHR and Kuits Solicitors acted for Beech Holdings in the acquisition.
WH Ireland was represented on the deal by JLL, which has now been instructed to find around 6,000 sq ft for the firm elsewhere.
Stephen Beech, founder and owner of Beech Holdings, said: “Getting the deal over the line has required a lot of hard work from our acquisitions team led by Justin Rouse. We agreed terms just prior to Christmas and worked hard to conclude what was a fairly complex transaction in four weeks.”
Beech Holdings includes Beech Construction, Beech Properties and lettings branch Manchester Apartments, which Beech said currently has 7,500 qualified leads.
He said: “We are turning large numbers of young professionals and graduates away every day at the moment. This latest acquisition will go some way to increasing the supply of much-needed residential apartments across the city region.”
The firm is aiming to add 20 new staff to its existing headcount of 100 by the end of April. Other Beech schemes in Manchester include conversions at Mindel House and 11 Bloom Street and a 53-apartment new build scheme in Castlefield.
