Bringing together the three buildings is The Drum, a three-storey rotunda, creating two glass-fronted office suites connected by bridges to the upper floors and an impressive new entrance on the ground floor. This spacious atrium provides a tenant hub with coffee bar, informal and formal meeting space, and houses the building’s in-house concierge team.
Russells Construction was appointed to the contract by Property Alliance Group, which purchased the property in January 2015. Vacant at the time, the developer secured three tenants in the first six months of the refurbishment and has since signed a further two tenants leaving only 12,000 sq ft available across two suites.
The project required the removal of the existing front façade and part of the roof to insert the rotunda. The team also refurbished the existing office space and added a gym, bike store, changing facilities to another part of the building. The external environment has also been improved with new car parking and landscaping as part of a comprehensive scheme from AEW architects.
Russells Construction director Gareth Russell said: “Ensuring the works had minimal impact on the existing tenants was a key consideration, and required careful management of the programme throughout. We worked directly with tenants to schedule specific works around their needs, and provided weekly updates on where we would be working and any impact that would have on them. We also phased the works so finished sections could be handed over to the client on completion, to allow new tenants to take occupation as quickly as possible.”
Formal completion of the project now gives all tenants access to the central hub and its communal facilities, and to new meeting room facilities for one tenant which has taken the second floor of The Drum extension.
Property Alliance Group director Alex Russell said: “Trident is now truly one of the standout schemes in South Manchester and the strong letting performance has been testament to the quality of workmanship, design and on site amenity that we set out to provide.
“The Russells team has done an excellent job in creating a fantastic statement office development. They worked carefully to minimise disruption for existing tenants and were also able to hand over completed sections on a rolling basis, enabling us to move in tenants as soon as their space became available and we are very confident that the scheme will be fully let by August.”
Trident at Manchester Airport, on Styal Road, is quoting rents at £17.50 per square foot. CBRE, Colliers International and Williams Commercial are the letting agents.