WeWork has agreed to lease its fifth Manchester hub, taking 51K SF at Boultbee Brook's refurbishment of 75 Mosley St., Manchester.

The new hub is a little over 100 metres from one of WeWork's first Manchester outposts at 1 St Peters Square, where it took 40K SF in September 2017.

OBI and Savills advised Boultbee Brooks Real Estate.

The decision is a testament to the scope for growth in the already growing Manchester flexible workspace sector.

Some Manchester landlords have had their doubts. In January it emerged that WeWork was no longer in talks with developer Marcus Worthington for a 45K SF hub on the first four floors of a soon-to-be-completed 117K SF speculative office building.

The move, connected with concerns about the leasing structure preferred by WeWork, which involves a special purpose vehicle without a trading history rather than a direct lease with the parent enterprise, comes as landlords globally begin to push back against the space-hungry coworking giant.

Last year concerns emerged that a WeWork tenancy damages an office building's valuation, in the opinion of some investors. Research by Cushman & Wakefield revealed that investors have been discounting the cap rates of properties with a large WeWork presence.