Chancery Place agents confident of pre-let success

Agents on Chancery Place, the new office building in Manchester which topped out this week, are confident of 'a number of pre-lets' before completion in the autumn.

The 15-storey building, being developed by Irish developer Blue Cube, will house 102,000 sq ft of net lettable office space with floors of 7,750 sq ft.

Trevor Sloan, director of Jones LaSalle, joint letting agent with Savills, added: "This is one of the finest buildings to be constructed within the central business district in recent years. We are currently in detailed negotiations on several floors and I am confident we will achieve a number of pre-lets prior to practical completion, which speaks volumes for the quality of the building."

Sloan said the views offered from the 60m-tall building, where quoting rents are £32.50/sq ft, would be a big selling point. He added: "The more people we can get down to see the building and the views that you get from it, the more deals we will do. With any tall building you are always going to be able to offer fantastic views but as you come down this building towards street level we don't expect to see a drop in rental because the quality of the building is the same throughout."

Jones Lang LaSalle is expected to announce its widely-tipped move into the building in the coming weeks, taking one floor in a relocation from nearby 82 King Street.

Another rumoured pre-let, to the building's architects, HKR, is understood to be less likely now to happen.

The £21m, wedge-shaped building on two-and-a-half levels of basement car parking is being constructed by Old Trafford-based contractor John Sisk & Son. Project management is also being overseen by Jones Lang LaSalle.