Office delivery accelerates at Circle Square
Bruntwood SciTech is planning to start on site in January with the next commercial building at Circle Square, bringing forward the £54m office early due to “exceptional levels of interest”.
The 220,000 sq ft, 12-storey block would be the third office at Circle Square, with the 150,000 sq ft No.1 and 210,000 sq ft No.2 currently under construction.
No.3 Circle Square has outline consent as part of the wider masterplan, but was due to be delivered in a later phase. Bruntwood SciTech, the 50:50 joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General, will be submitting a detailed planning application in September.
The architect is Feilden Clegg Bradley, who also designed No.1 and No.2.
Hewlett Packard is taking 20,000 sq ft in No.1 Circle Square, while Mills & Reeve is taking 12,000 sq ft. Jaguar Land Rover has been rumoured to be looking at space, while Circle Square is also understood to be one of the sites under consideration by telecoms giant BT for its 200,000 sq ft requirement.
Bruntwood SciTech said it had “accelerated plans for its next commercial building to cater for the anticipated continued growth of Manchester’s digital technology and engineering sector”, citing research by Tech Nation which shows that tech deals are growing at a quicker rate in Manchester than anywhere else in Europe.
When complete, Circle Square, being delivered alongside Vita Group, will include 1,700 homes, 1.2 million sq ft of workspace and over 100,000 sq ft of retail and leisure set around a park.
Tom Renn, managing director of Bruntwood SciTech, said: “With No.1 and No.2 Circle Square opening in summer 2020, we are delighted to be in a position where the level of interest and excitement around what we are creating at Circle Square has led to us accelerating the development of No.3 Circle Square.
“Circle Square will be an extraordinary place, full of life and activity. A place where incredible companies, working in some of the most interesting and disruptive digital technology sectors, like Cyber, FinTech, IOT and big data, will work alongside each other and where residents and visitors to Manchester, will come to experience the best of our cities cultural offer, through independent retailers and the programme of festivals and events that we plan to host in Manchester’s newest city park.”
Circle Square looks really promising (apart from the utterly dire first phase student blocks). I do wish developers would stop misleading prospective tenants and the public by producing unrealistic CGIs. The picture accompanying this article shows a view of the green space from a location where a building will be making the space look larger and much less hemmed in than it will be in reality.
By Eileen Grimethorpe
Eileen. This is Manchester.They come out in a rash at Manchester Town Hall if they see a green space which is more than a yard wide. That pathetic bit of green is about the same size as what you see in an average residential London square.
By Elephant
Eileen, do you mean that developers should show the worst angle to their prospective developments? As any product, they want to put it in the best light. They are not misleading the public, use your words carefully. Our job is to point it out or be aware of it. Would you expect a car manufacturer to show the least attractive part of their cars or would you put up a bad profile picture of yourself on a dating app?
Elephant, be reasonable in your comments and stop the hyperbole or it makes your more sensible comments less effective.
By Anon
Well said Anon
By Skippy
Anon, it’s not about developers showing off the best or worst viewpoint but rather being honest. And it’s beyond the pale to warn me about how I express myself because I have a valid point.
The CGI accompanying this article is dishonest because in order to have that viewpoint you’d have to look through a building. Now, unless Bruntwood have managed to find a way of developing see-through buildings or have some sort of cloaking device, that viewpoint simply won’t exist.
By Eileen Grimethorpe
Walk around the city. Open your eyes. How many spaces have been created in the last 20 years? More than anywhere else in the country. It must be quite a challenge being so negative all the time. You should b put your energy into making a difference rather than complaining about more or less everything.
By Alwaysred
Well said Eileen. The renders totally misrepresent the view.
By Tyler