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The owners of the Daily Express started work on the iconic Express Building, Ancoats in 1936. They transformed what had been the site of a corset factory into the hipster media accommodation of its day. It was a bold move into a distinctly non-traditional office location.
Eighty years later, the Ancoats office market is finally a thing, say agents who now calculate annual take-up of around 85K SF a year. This makes it rather larger than the Old Trafford market which regularly scores around 60K SF a year.
The first research into the Ancoats market emerges as work begins on the 78K SF refurbished Express Building, now owned by Metis Real Estate.
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"Ancoats has grown as an office market on the back of the strong residential market, and with the exception of Royal London Asset Management's 21K SF Fabrica, it has been about large-scale refurbishments," OBI Property Head of Transactions Richard Lace said. "There's a lot of investment going into the area's property market because the fashion and digital sector want to be there."
Lace argues that Ancoats is now a distinct office market, independent of the Northern Quarter.
"Rents in Ancoats are moving up from the early to mid-teens per square foot, to the early £20/SF mark. There's no reason in the current Ancoats market why that can't happen," Lace said.
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