Hunter completes £10m Salford Quays investment

Hunter Real Estate Investment Managers has completed its £10m investment into Exchange Quay, the 433,637 sq ft office development at Salford Quays.

After acquiring Exchange Quay on behalf of a US-based institutional investor in 2013, Hunter has carried out a £10m investment programme to bring the site’s six office properties to a grade A specification, remodelling the development’s public spaces and adding new occupier facilities.

Hunter signed up site services provider Elior on a five-year deal to manage Exchange Quay’s enhanced amenity offering, which includes a new restaurant, Londis retail store and Costa outlet. A Post Office is due to open on site later this year.

Jeremy Birkett-Jones, Hunter’s investment director, said: “Right from the outset we recognised the immense potential in Exchange Quay, which was once regarded as the ‘Canary Wharf of the North’.

“It was clear to us that such a prestigious scheme in an unrivalled location in the North West would respond to a dedicated investment programme to modernise the office accommodation and create a whole new environment.”

He continued: “We have engaged with all the relevant local bodies and worked closely with our design, site and agency teams since the acquisition to ensure that the finished product matches the market demand and this has already been confirmed in the initial lettings we have secured prior to completion of the works.”

Exchange Quay’s joint agents, Canning O’Neill and Savills, have secured 10 deals since the beginning of last year, with both new and existing occupiers signing up for 60,000 sq ft of space.

Savills’ director of office agency, James Evans, commented: “The grade A offices at Exchange Quay are hitting the North West office market at just the right time, as occupier confidence has returned and supply is diminishing.

The six office buildings at Exchange Quay, which has its own Metrolink tram stop, range between 26,151 sq ft and 116,684 sq ft.

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