I'm currently up in a very rainy Manchester, catching up on all the news and gossip and gathering ideas for our upcoming Manchester Focus ahead of the release of the synopsis at our reception on the 3rd Feb (you can get more details by clicking here).
A recurring theme is the lack of office stock in the pipeline. Indeed, walking around Manchester, cranes on the skyline are notable by their absence.
Final year-end figures for 2009 are soon to be finalised, but Lambert Smith Hampton reckons there is around 900,000 sq ft of prime availability in the centre. Total take-up for 2009 is expected to have reached the 700,000-800,000 sq ft mark, meaning that there's little more than a year's worth of stock out there.
Picture by Frankie Roberto used under the Creative Commons license on Flickr.
A possible contender to rectify this is Argent. The developer is seeking permission to rebuild the tired 1960s style Elizabeth House pictured and rebuild it as the 270,000 sq ft One St Peter's Square.
But it will take time and Argent says a decision whether to start on site will be taken this year, but completion won't be before 2014.
That leaves Picadilly Place the office campus which Argent recently completed for The Carlyle Group. There are still plenty of empty floors, but with little new stock on the horizon, Carlyle will be hoping this gives it ample opportunity to fill them.
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