Manchester City Council has approved Bruntwood SciTech’s £6m refurbishment plans for the historic 117-119 Portland Street building in Manchester city centre.
The project will see the 35,000 sq ft Grade II listed building transformed into a multi-let workspace, providing a mixture of offices ranging from 1,200 to 6,200 sq ft. Nine fully fitted workspaces will be created allowing tenants to move in as soon as the works are complete, which is anticipated to be in spring 2025.
On-site amenities will include breakout spaces and lounge areas, an on-site gym, boutique gym-quality shower and changing facilities, and an auditorium for events.
Bruntwood SciTech said the building would become a central hub for collaboration, wellness and events, creating a vibrant social community for businesses in the building and the nearby 113-115 Portland Street, 127 Portland Street and Oxford Place.
Richard Roper, associate director – asset management at Bruntwood SciTech, said: “Receiving planning approval for 117-119 Portland Street marks the next exciting phase in our plans to enhance and improve our workspaces across Manchester city centre, where we already have major new developments underway at both our campus locations and other city centre innovation hubs, such as Pall Mall, King’s House, No.3 Circle Square, Citylabs 4.0 and Greenheys at Manchester Science Park.
“Our cluster of buildings on Portland Street are uniquely positioned to become the connecting junction between the Oxford Road Corridor and our city centre innovation hubs, further supporting businesses to access a city-wide innovation ecosystem. This cornerstone of the city has been lacking investment into creating workspaces that galvanise collaboration, creativity and ingenuity and offer like-minded communities to connect with, so we hope to deliver that at 117 Portland Street.”
Canning O’Neill and Savills are the agents for 117-119 Portland Street and the main contractor is CubicWorks. AXI, Kaizen Consulting Engineers, Deloitte, Bespoke Fire Engineering, DW Consulting, Sol Acoustics and Assent Building Control are also part of the project team.
