TCS pushes on with Piccadilly Basin projects

Developer Town Centres Securities is aiming to start groundworks at Eider House, its 128-apartment scheme in Manchester’s Piccadilly Basin, later this year, with another of its residential developments scheduled to complete in May.

TCS has three projects planned for the Piccadilly Basin; Burlington House, which is being developed in a joint venture with Highgrove, is currently on site and is due to reach practical completion in May.

Designed by SimpsonHaugh, the 11-storey development on Tariff Street features 91 apartments for private rent; GMI is the main contractor.

TCS said it would continue building out its residential plots within the Piccadilly Basin with work on Eider House expected to begin this year.

This development features 128 flats over a mixed eight and 10-storey block and has been designed by Cartwright Pickard Architects; the scheme received planning consent in June 2017.

Elsewhere within the Piccadilly Basin, contractor GMI is also on site at the Dakota Deluxe, a four-star 137-bed hotel. This is due to open in the spring, and is being developed by Evans Property Group, which has a long leasehold on the site from TCS.

In a trading update this morning, TCS said overall occupancy levels within its portfolio – which includes Ducie House, purchased from Urban Splash for £9m last year – rose to 96%, with like-for-like passing rent also rising in the last six months.

The company will announce its half-year results on 26 February.

Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive of TCS, said: “We continue to improve our portfolio and maintain our track record of managing the business for long-term success, notwithstanding that the combination of Brexit uncertainty and continued seismic change in retailing makes it a tougher environment in which to operate. This means the importance of our development pipeline, that we have built up over time into a sizable opportunity, is clearer than ever.

“Our expertise in active asset and tenant management has resulted in TCS improving future income levels from properties vacated due to CVAs and insolvencies. Furthermore, while we reduce the overall proportion of retail in our portfolio, the resulting greater focus on supermarket and convenience retailing is helping de-risk the Company from the worst of the high street disruption.

“We remain optimistic about TCS’s prospects and the opportunities in our development pipeline.”