Catalyst Capital has acquired the freehold of the Arkwright House office building in Manchester for a refurbishment project.
Catalyst Capital has acquired the freehold of the Arkwright House office building in Manchester for a refurbishment project.
The European real estate investment and asset management firm paid £11 mln (€13.5 mln) for the Grade-II listed building in Parsonage Gardens behind Deansgate in the heart of Manchester. It was designed in a neo-classical style by local architect, Harry Fairhurst, for the English Sewing Cotton Company and completed in 1937.
The building comprises ground and seven upper floors, totalling 8,000 m2, of which three quarters is vacant. There are three tenants, Crowe Clark Whitehill and Howgate, Sable & Partners in office space and a Revolution Bar on the ground floor.
Catalyst Capital is working on plans for a comprehensive refurbishment and extension of the building, which would increase its overall size to 9,300 m2 and provide individual floorplates of 1,400 m2.
Guy Wilson, a partner of Catalyst Capital, said, 'Arkwright House allows us to continue our strategy of purchasing regional office properties with scope for asset enhancement in recovering markets.
'We will be undertaking a major repositioning of this property for completion in 2015. We are seeking to capitalise on the lack of future grade A office space in Manchester City Centre and we continue to look for similar office investments throughout the UK.'
Catalyst Capital was advised by CBRE and the vendors, LPA receivers for Garhurst, were advised by GVA.
Since its inception in 1996, Catalyst Capital has invested more than € 4.5 bn in real estate assets, including more than € 1.1 bn in 35 shopping centres.
