CIS Tower up for sale

Manchester’s iconic CIS Tower is up for sale, with Colliers International and JLL instructed to run the sale process, Place North West understands. The marketing of the building has been run in a restricted manner, with just a handful of potential buyers being invited in.

Best bids have now been submitted, with the process of selecting a buyer ongoing. The sale price is understood to be upward of £50m.

The grade two-listed building, at the centre of the NOMA estate, is fully occupied at present by various parts of the Co-operative Group – it is understood that seven or eight years remain on the overarching lease.

The building was completed in 1962, at which time it was the third tallest in Europe, and stands at 118m. The net internal area is listed on the NOMA website as 361,700 sq ft, with gross internal area at 487,185 sq ft.

All parties involved in the process declined to comment.

A Manchester investment agent said: “It’s an iconic building, but not an easy one to trade. On the one hand, it’s the sort of asset that deserves to be openly traded, but the reality is you’d get crowding in to look round what’s a complicated building, and whoever’s working on it wouldn’t be able to do anything else for six weeks. I’d suggest that even once it’s under offer, that might not even be halfway there – there could be a lot of technical due diligence.”

Another agent said: “It’s hard to put a value on it, given the lack of trading history. Are they looking at adding in new uses a few years down the line, a hotel maybe?”