Leading property company Bruntwood has welcomed third sector travel management leader Key Travel to the newly refurbished ninth floor of its landmark St James’ building on Oxford Road in Manchester.
Key Travel recently announced a merger with Raptim Humanitarian Travel to form the world’s largest travel management company exclusively focused on the academic, humanitarian and faith sectors.
The merged business, which has over 500 employees in ten countries and sales of over £350 million, has taken the entire newly-refurbished ninth floor at St James’, which is just under 20,000 sq ft.
The St James’ Building dates back to 1912 and was once the headquarters of the Calico Printers Association. Bruntwood has sensitively transformed the landmark with a comprehensive refurbishment, which has regenerated the historic building creating a vibrant, contemporary home for Manchester’s next generation of businesses.
One of the finest period properties in the city, St James’ also boasts some of the best digital connectivity in Manchester and as part of the Oxford Road Corridor Innovation District, offers the opportunity to link and collaborate with a wealth of innovative organisations based on the doorstep.
Following the ninth floor refurbishment, Bruntwood harnessed projection mapping and augmented reality (AR) to showcase the suite, creating a bespoke AR app to provide potential customers with an immersive viewing experience.
Adam Selka, Senior Asset Manager at Bruntwood Works, said: “It’s wonderful to be welcoming Key Travel to this outstanding suite, particularly at this exciting point in the business’ journey. Following our work to regenerate the suite, we harnessed technology in the form of an AR experience to animate the space and show its potential to viewers, but there’s nothing quite like seeing a company move into a new suite and bring it to life by putting their own stamp on the space!
“The ninth floor at St James’ is a unique space in the city, offering a spacious, dynamic open plan environment in a beautiful period property complete with outstanding contemporary features, facilities and amenities. St James’ also offers customers excellent connectivity, and great access to a vibrant community of the most innovative and exciting organisations in the region. It’s a great space in an unbeatable location and we wish the Key Travel team the very best of luck as they settle into their new home.”
John O Sullivan, Managing Director for Key Travel in the UK said: “Although we continue to grow our company globally, our Manchester office has always been and will continue to be the heart of our operations. The move to St. James’ will reinforce our presence in the city whilst perfectly accommodating our objectives for future growth and providing a great working environment for our people. We are truly looking forward to becoming part of the history of this great building.”
