Manchester’s 55 Spring Gardens acquired by Tri7, Pears Group

Understood to be sold for a figure close to the £15m guide price, the 55,400 sq ft office is now lined up for a rolling refurbishment programme.

TriOffice, the month-old office investment arm of asset manager Tri7 Group, purchased 55 Spring Gardens in partnership with The Pears Group.

Knight Frank represented the unnamed vendor on the deal with TriOffice and The Pears Group. HM Land Registry lists the most recent owner of the 10-storey office block as Aviva Life and Pensions. Aviva purchased the site in 2017 for £20.5m.

Current tenants at the Manchester building include Clarke Willmott, SysGroup, and CAF Rail. There are two vacancies at the property, which offers work spaces between 1,000 sq ft and 7,000 sq ft. The current average rent at the property is £28.86/sq ft.

TriOffice said it would embark on a rolling refurbishment and asset management programme for the office block, building on the work done during two previously refurbishments over the last 10 years.

Knight Frank had argued, when marketing the property, that a renovation project could see the building attract rents northwards of £40/sq ft.

Tri7 founding partner Samuel Castle described 55 Spring Gardens as “a great example of the type of schemes” the investor is looking at acquiring.

“We set up TriOffice last month to capitalise on value-add opportunities within the office sector,” he said.

“We believe that the scarcity of high-quality office stock, combined with the occupational resilience that has been witnessed in the major regional office markets, will lead to strong performance for those who upgrade and reposition prime-located office stock at this point in the cycle,” Castle continued.

“For an opportunistic and agile investor like Tri7, we believe now is the right time to deploy capital into the sector…”

Craig Barton, investment partner at Knight Frank, added: “This was a fantastic transaction to be involved with and our team is delighted to have helped our client with their exit, at competitive pricing.

“We would also commend the buyer for their performance in concluding this deal, and look forward to seeing their plans to take 55 Spring Gardens onwards.”