Phoenix House welcomes trio of tenants
Charity Forever Manchester, civil and structural engineers SGI Consulting and software agency Bentley Systems have signed for a total of 5,000 sq ft at the recently refurbished office block on Cross Street.
Forever Manchester has signed a 10-year lease on 1,665 sq ft on the first floor of the 11,400 sq ft building in Manchester, and will relocate from its current base on Hewitt Street.
Bentley Systems has signed a five-year lease at Phoenix to occupy 1,645 sq ft on the fourth floor. Bentley is relocating from City Approach in Eccles.
SGI Consulting has taken the third floor of the building, totalling 1,644 sq ft, on a five-year lease having vacated its former office on Peter Street.
Emyr Jones, director of SGI Consulting, said: “The pandemic has brought changes to our working practices but SGI still believes having an office in the heart of Manchester is integral to its future growth and longevity.”
Jones added he hoped the move would bring about an uptick in the number of employees travelling to work by sustainable means.
“Phoenix House offers modern facilities to allow the adaptation of more sustainable travel, especially for employees who choose to cycle to work allowing them to store their bikes in the cycle store and access the showering facilities.
“Currently less than 10% of the staff at SGI cycle in and out of work however with the enhanced facilities we predict this to rise to 25% in the first year,” he said.
The three deals leave the second, fifth and sixth floors available, with suites starting at 1,600 sq ft, after the seventh floor was let to property developer Harworth Group last year.
Edwards & Co and JLL are the retained letting agents for the building, which is owned by a private group of trustees.
The headline rent for suites at Phoenix is £25.00/ sq ft, according to Edwards & Co.
Lymm-based C4 Projects carried out a £2m refurbishment of the building, which features two retail units on the ground floor, in 2019.
The building’s existing marble floors were restored while the original open-plan floor plate was reinstated.
Phoenix House was built in 1928 for its original occupier Yorkshire Insurance Company.
Oliver Woodall, senior surveyor at Edwards & Co, said: “With the majority of occupiers in this size bracket now favouring fitted solutions, we advised the owners to invest in refurbishing [the building] to take away the issues usually associated with moving office.
“Securing three quality occupiers in quick succession is an excellent result and further illustrates the importance of the refurbishment”.
