George Davies moves into 1 New York Street

Law firm George Davies is moving into Bruntwood's 1 New York Street in Manchester city centre.

George Davies is relocating 86 staff from four floors, covering 15,000 sq ft in total, at existing premises at Fountain Court in Fountain Street, to one floor at 9,000 sq ft in New York Street in September.

Mark Hovell, managing partner at George Davies, said: "Our 'dead' space equated to a spare seat for every member of our staff. Most of our workstations were under utilised most of the time due to external meetings, home working and travel. We also wanted to tackle our storage and archiving needs to become more eco-friendly and eventually to strive for a paperless working environment. In order to move forward we needed to first tackle the efficiency of our premises."

Will Lewis, offices partner at OBI Property, which advised George Davies, added: "We put several options to George Davies which included recently developed areas of the city, but in the end Bruntwood's reputation as a landlord and in house expertise put 1 New York Street in poll position. Bruntwood have worked closely with George Davies for the past 18 months and this relationship will continue to develop throughout the ten year lease.

"I am sure this news will make other professional firms in the city consider their own real space needs at lease ends or breaks. The George Davies example demonstrates that reviewing working methods can be positive and enable a move towards greater efficiency and profitability."

Lewis has been closely connected with the project over the past few years when at WHR and now with his own partnership at OBI.

Lewis, an associate partner in office agency, Gary Scorah, partner in investment, and Dominic Horridge, partner in charge of building consultancy, handed in their notices at WHR last November to set up OBI.

Designed by Denton Corker Marshall, 1 NewYork Street was completed last September and holds an 'excellent' BRE Environmental Assessment Method rating.

Details of the rental agreement were not disclosed.

DTZ and WHR Property Consultants are retained letting agents on 1 New York Street.

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