Grosvenor, the property firm managed by the Duke of Westminster, has damaged floor on a £40m repositioning of The Hive in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, in a transfer that takes the group’s instantly managed versatile workspace mannequin outdoors London for the primary time.
The Lever Avenue landmark, which extends to 78,000 sq ft, will probably be reimagined as a vacation spot workplace constructing anchored by 25,500 sq ft of flex area and a hospitality-led amenity supply. Floor-floor items fronting Lever Avenue will home a deli and a restaurant, each run by what Grosvenor describes as “well-known Manchester names”, with a launch pencilled in for autumn 2026.
For Grosvenor’s UK property arm, the undertaking is essentially the most seen check but of a regional technique launched in 2020 that now stretches throughout roughly 500,000 sq ft in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The portfolio is at the moment 90 per cent let, a determine that compares favourably with a regional workplace market nonetheless wrestling with hybrid working and a flight to high quality.
The group has appointed x+why, the B Corp-certified workspace operator, to run greater than 22,000 sq ft of the flex flooring beneath a administration settlement. The deal extends a partnership that started in 2023 at Fivefields, Grosvenor’s social-impact workspace in Victoria, and indicators a rising urge for food amongst conventional landlords to plug working experience into their very own buildings reasonably than cede area to third-party flex suppliers on typical leases.
Interiors will probably be designed by x+why’s in-house workforce, whydesign, with a deliberate nod to native craftsmanship. Items by Manchester-based furnishings designers and artists together with Aiden Donovan, Jesse Cracknell, Matt Dennis and Mima Adams will probably be woven into the scheme, whereas components from the fit-out put in by earlier tenant The Arts Council are to be repurposed, a small however pointed gesture in direction of the constructing’s artistic heritage.
The guess on Manchester displays a wider conviction inside Grosvenor that town’s workplace market stays one of the vital resilient outdoors the capital, underpinned by a deep expertise pool, inward enterprise migration and a structural scarcity of grade-An area. The owner’s close by Ship Canal Home is, it says, near full occupancy following a run of latest lettings and renewals.
Fergus Evans, workplace portfolio director at Grosvenor Property UK, mentioned the Hive scheme typified the group’s regional playbook of taking “a primary asset in an amazing location and repositioning it to fulfill the evolving wants of right this moment’s occupiers”. He added: “Manchester continues to carry out strongly for us, and our funding in The Hive displays sustained demand for well-located, high-quality workplaces, significantly from town’s rising digital and artistic financial system. Combining x+why’s expertise in creating design-led, community-focused workspaces with our strategy to energetic asset administration, we’re nicely positioned to ship a particular, versatile supply that responds to native demand.”
Rupert Dean, chief govt and co-founder of x+why, mentioned the operator was “delighted to be partnering with Grosvenor once more to convey The Hive into its subsequent chapter”. He added: “The Northern Quarter is among the most fun and entrepreneurial elements of the UK, and The Hive will mirror that power, providing a workspace that isn’t solely practical, however inspiring and socially pushed.”
For SMEs and scale-ups in Manchester’s digital and artistic cluster, the very occupiers Grosvenor and x+why are courting, the arrival of a higher-end, hospitality-led flex product on Lever Avenue is prone to sharpen competitors with established gamers corresponding to WeWork, Bruntwood and Division, and will nudge headline rents within the Northern Quarter increased when the doorways open subsequent autumn.
Jamie Younger
Jamie is Senior Reporter at Enterprise Issues, bringing over a decade of expertise in UK SME enterprise reporting.
Jamie holds a level in Enterprise Administration and usually participates in trade conferences and workshops.
When not reporting on the most recent enterprise developments, Jamie is enthusiastic about mentoring up-and-coming journalists and entrepreneurs to encourage the following era of enterprise leaders.
