Beech Holdings invests £5.27m in Manchester office block

An office building the the centre of Manchester has been snapped up by property group Beech Holdings in a £5.27m deal.

Beech Holdings acquired 11 St James’s Square, located on John Dalton Street, from financial services firm WH Ireland Group Plc’s subsidiary Readycount.

The company will now transform the 22,374 sq ft property’s upper four floors into as many as 48 low-carbon apartments.

Following the deal, WH Ireland staff will remain at the site for at least the next five months. The ground-floor retail units at 11 St James’s Square will continue to trade as normal.

Beech Holdings’ founder and owner, Stephen Beech, said: “I’m really pleased to announce that we have bought 11 St James’s Square, which is located in the heart of Manchester city centre’s prime financial and professional district.

“Getting the deal over the line has required a lot of hard work from our acquisitions team led by Justin Rouse. We agreed terms just prior to Christmas and worked hard to conclude what was a fairly complex transaction in four weeks over Christmas and New Year.”

He continued: “Beech Holdings is headquartered on Oxford Street in Manchester city centre and our front-of- house Manchester Apartments lettings branch currently has 7,500 qualified leads.

“We are turning large numbers of young professionals and graduates away every day at the moment. This latest acquisition will go some way to increasing the supply of much-needed residential apartments across the city region.”

Beech Holdings was represented by WHR and Kuits Solicitors in the acquisition. JLL acted for WH Ireland.

The acquisition follows the announcement of a new recruitment drive across Beech’s portfolio of businesses, which includes Beech Construction, Beech Properties and lettings arm Manchester Apartments.