Ares Management is under offer to buy Carlyle Group’s Three and Four Piccadilly Place in Manchester for around £118m – a 5.75% yield.
Together, the buildings comprise 300,000 sq ft of offices and 25,000 sq ft of retail and leisure and form part of the 675,000 sq ft Piccadilly Place campus.
Carlyle forward funded the buildings with Argent in 2007 for around £100m, at the peak of the previous market cycle.
At the time the 190,000 sq ft Three Piccadilly Place was 25% let and the 110,000 sq ft Four Piccadilly Place was developed speculatively.
But the scheme struggled to let following the financial crisis in 2008 as corporate demand for new office space evaporated.
Four Piccadilly Place eventually secured an 80,000 sq ft letting to Barclays Bank in 2013, which at the time was the largest Manchester leasing deal for three years.
Three Piccadilly Place is now fully let to tenants including NuGeneration, Weightmans, Arup, EC Harris and NHS Property Services.
Four Piccadilly Place has only around 10,000 sq ft of vacant space.
Bilfinger GVA and CBRE are acting for Carlyle; Ares Management is unrepresented.
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