Memery Crystal advises on No. 8 First Street Manchester acquisition

No.8 stands proudly in the centre of Manchester’s £500m First Street development and delivers 170,000 sq. ft. of Grade A, BREEAM Excellent office accommodation over six floors. This includes an unrivalled 26,000 sq. ft. of largely column-free floorplates, offering flexible layouts and generously proportioned office space.

Completed in 2019, No. 8 is built from attractive, high quality materials and has an architecturally responsive façade that works effectively both in its immediate environment and in the wider townscape. The development also boasts of unique and strategically placed winter gardens that provide further amenity space inside the building.

Current tenants include multidisciplinary consultancy WSP, energy company Gazprom, cinema brand Odeon, advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson, and biotechnology firm Lonza.

The Memery Crystal team on this transaction was led by our co-head of real estate Alastair Moss and senior associate Ayesha Qayum, and included Sophie Moonshine, Craig Jones, Phillipa Harking and Helen Abel from our real estate team.

Banking and finance support was provided by our head of banking and finance Matthew Lindsay and Tom Driscoll; corporate support was provided by our head of corporate Nick Alfillé and Amrit Duhra; tax support was provided by head of tax Alex Barnes; construction support was provided by James Ashwin; planning support was provided by Claire Saffer; employment support was provided by Mark Rose; and commercial support was provided by Sylvia Mueller and Liam Hill.

Our work on this deal follows previously advising Ashtrom on the £68m acquisition of the Grade II listed building Exchange Flags in Liverpool.

Commenting on the No. 8 deal, Guy Lewinsohn, CEO at Ashtrom Properties UK said: “The acquisition of No. 8 is in line with our current strategy of investing in regional cities. We are thrilled to add this well-connected, prime office development that is surrounded by brilliant amenities to our portfolio. We would like to thank the entire Memery Crystal team for their support on this deal. As always, they were professional, pragmatic, technically excellent and responsive throughout, and we are delighted to have them as our legal advisers.”

Alastair Moss, co-head of real estate at Memery Crystal said: “This is undoubtedly a significant transaction in the regional market and we are proud to have assisted on the acquisition of this impressive asset that is both design conscious and visually striking. This acquisition further demonstrates our reputation as a fast-growing full service real estate firm and showcases our ability to close transactions of significant scale and complexity. We look forward to supporting Guy and his team as they continue to grow their portfolio in the UK.”

(Image via First Street Manchester)