Premier Inn Hotel First Street, Manchester — Photo by Whitbread

Whitbread, in a joint venture with Ask Real Estate, the Richardson family and PATRIZIA, has exchanged a pre-let agreement for a 200-bedroom Premier Inn hotel at First Street, Manchester.

The hotel operator will occupy the top five floors of a new 16 story mixed-use development which secured planning permission in December 2018. Construction of the new building will start in summer 2019 with completion due in early 2021.

The deal will simultaneously see a second joint venture partnership between Ask Real Estate, the Richardson family and Whitbread bring forward a planning application to redevelop the existing Premier Inn Deansgate Locks hotel site, adjacent to First Street, with a separate c.480,000 sqft mixed-use scheme. A planning application for the development is expected to be submitted to Manchester City Council in May 2019.

Premier Inn is the first confirmed tenant in the new building at First Street and will occupy floors 12-16, with 160,000 sq ft of Grade A offices on floors 1-11. The new building will also feature winter gardens on each of the office floors, replicating the popular winter gardens which are a key feature of No8, together with open staircases to connect floors and a triple height reception space for workers. The hotel will benefit from a separate entrance and lift core.

BAM Construction has been confirmed as the preferred construction partner for the new building which will be the fourth phase of development at the 20-acre First Street scheme. HOME anchors the culture and amenity phase which completed in April 2015 and sits alongside the 180,000 sq ft N01 and 170,000 sq ft N08 office buildings, where occupiers include Auto Trader, Jacobs Engineering, AmazeRealise, Ford Credit, WSP and Gazprom.

Commenting on the announcement John Hughes, Managing Director of Ask Real Estate, said: "With a projected lack of Grade A office space in the city from 2021 we will be bringing forward much needed, high-quality and flexible office space to a buoyant market and are delighted to announce Premier Inn as the building's first tenant.

The architect for the building is Jon Matthews Architects. Deloitte advised on planning for the project and DWF were Whitbread's legal advisor on the transactions.

An updated masterplan for the First Street area was approved by Manchester City Council last year and will see Ask Real Estate, the Richardson family and PATRIZIA develop up to 1m sq ft of offices at First Street. The estate is home to the INNSIDE Manchester hotel, a 279-room Vita Student scheme, a 700-space Q-Park, the HOME arts venue and a host of bars, leisure operators and restaurants.

Hotel website