Manchester based property consultants, OBI, have received full planning permission for the comprehensive office refurbishment of 17 Quay Street, Manchester.
Urbana Partners acquired 17 Quay Street, formerly Direct Line House, through OBI’s Transaction & Asset Management team in February this year. The building comprises 58,000 Sq Ft of office space, prominently situated on the corner of Quay Street and Byrom Street in Manchester city centre and will form an integral link between Enterprise City and Spinningfields, from which the building is only a stone’s-throw away.
Approved plans include a new entrance via Byrom Street creating a new gateway through St John’s Gardens to Enterprise City. The building’s external appearance will also be brought into the present day, with proposed alteration to the elevations including wholesale window replacement, brickwork tinting and new canopied entrances from Quay Street.
Whilst also delivering Grade-A office space from floors 1-5, a new best-in-class reception and business lounge, fitted-and-furnished small suites to the First Floor and leisure opportunities.
Acknowledging occupiers’ desire for increasing amounts of green and amenity space in the workplace post-covid, the refurbishment will add both cycle and shower facilities to the Lower Ground floor and a new rooftop terrace accessible to the building’s tenants.
The scheme will also have a raft of sustainability credentials such as BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and a WiredScore accreditation of ‘Platinum’ in accordance with the ESG objectives set out at project inception.
Joe Weilding, Building Consultancy at OBI commented: “We are delighted to have obtained Planning Consent with minimal conditions allowing us to commence works promptly. We will shortly be appointing a contractor to deliver the scheme at the end of the year”.
Andrew Cowell, Transactions & Asset Management at OBI commented: “We are really excited to see the refurbishment of 17 Quay Street, which will see the building totally transformed and repositioned into a Grade A workspace building that will appeal to occupiers from all sectors.
“The building is in a great central location and the inclusion of the ground floor collaboration space, wellness facilities and roof terrace will attract progressive businesses who really value their working environment.”
The core design team, headed by OBI’s Building Consultancy team includes 3DReid as the architectural consultant, MEP Design as the mechanical & electrical consultant and Tier Consult as structural engineers. Element Sustainability has also been appointed as BREEAM assessor.
Works on the building have been tendered and are due to commence immediately with a delivery date of Q4 2023.
