In Manchester, Benson Elliot let 17,000 sq ft across two floors at 55 Princess Street to international law firm Trowers & Hamlins. 55 Princess Street offers 51,700 sq ft of grade A office space in central Manchester, arranged over six floors, along with 4,100 sq ft of ground floor retail space. Trowers & Hamlins has taken a 10 year lease and will join other tenants in the building including fellow law firm, Slater and Gordon and Tesco. The Trowers & Hamlins letting increases occupancy at 55 Princess Street to 77%. Since its acquisition of the building in September 2013, Benson Elliot has overseen the refurbishment of the reception and common areas, and upgraded vacant space, bringing the building into line with expectations of leading tenants in the market.
Other regional lettings include 36,200 sq ft at 10 Templeback in Bristol (13,000 sq ft to Blue Speck Financial and 10,400 sq ft to Mott MacDonald), and 8,600 sq ft of space let to Colliers at 11 Brindleyplace in Birmingham. This flurry of letting activity reflects a recovery in regional office demand, particularly for grade A space in major markets, and Benson Elliot’s hands-on, dynamic approach to managing its office investments.
James Jakeman, Principal at Benson Elliot, commented: “The return of the regional office rental market is obviously good news for Benson Elliot’s investors, and validates the regional investment strategy we’ve been deploying in the UK in recent years. When we bought 55 Princess Street, we had a conviction view that economic growth spreading outwards from London would reward us for taking some carefully calibrated letting risk in markets with limited availability of grade A office stock. We think this recovery has further to run, and expect to see further letting successes as the year progresses.”
ENDS
For further information:
FTI Consulting
Dido Laurimore / Claire Turvey
Dido.laurimore@fticonsulting.com
Claire.turvey@fticonsulting.com
+44(0) 20 37271000
