M&S and Pure Gym sign at Piccadilly Basin

Marks & Spencer and Pure Gym have signed leases totalling 38,678 sq ft with Town Centre Securities at the Urban Exchange development in Manchester.

There is now just one retail unit of 7,233 sq ft remaining to let to on the ground floor of the 120,000 sq ft building. Other tenants include Aldi and GO Outdoors, which opened on 1 April.

Marks & Spencer signed a lease for a 19,353 sq ft ground floor unit which will become an outlet store. CB Richard Ellis represented Marks & Spencer; Town Centre Securities represented itself.

Twenty-four hour gym operator Pure Gym agreed a 15-year lease for 19,326 sq ft over the lower ground floor. Cushman & Wakefield and BNP Paribas represented Town Centre Securities and Pure Gym was unrepresented.

Yorkshire-based contractor GMI Construction has been appointed to carry out both store fit-outs. Work on the Marks & Spencer outlet is due to begin shortly with the store scheduled to open in the summer.

The deals represent the tail end of the turnaround in fortunes for TCS at the 120,000 sq ft building which was left vacant when Danish furniture retailer Iilva went into administration in 2008.

Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive of Town Centre Securities, said: "To be in a situation where a prominent building of this magnitude is left vacant presents many challenges and we are incredibly proud to have been able to overcome these to create a successful scheme in the midst of a challenging economic climate. We have always had confidence in the whole Piccadilly Basin scheme as it occupies such a key site within the city of Manchester and the major retailers we now have in occupation will undoubtedly ensure its continued success."

The Manchester offices of BNP Paribas and Cushman & Wakefield are handling enquiries in the remaining retail unit at Urban Exchange.