Last summer, Salford Quays saw its biggest deal since the BBC’s relocation to MediaCity UK, with a major letting to TalkTalk in Soapworks. Who was behind it? The landlord was advised not only by global giant JLL, but also by independent agency Canning O’Neill.
The Manchester office specialist is rarely out of the top three in the city’s league tables, transacting 362,196 sq ft in the 12 months up to August 2015, second only to JLL, and above CBRE and Savills.
Mark Canning and Conrad O’Neill set up the practice in 1997 after leaving what was Grimley’s (now Bilfinger GVA) Manchester office team to offer something different to the larger players.
“It’s really the personal service and the immediacy of it all,” says Canning. “The big firms are big, so who you get through to, who you deal with, can vary and the quality of service can vary. We offer very much a hands-on personal service. You always get through to one of us.”
Small agencies – Canning O’Neill has since added James Dickinson and associate director John Nash – can also focus purely on deals, he says, rather than other company-wide considerations.
“We were rolled out at times [by the investment department] to say, ‘That’s the rent, we will let it in six months, what a great investment.’”
Do independents need a different personality than agents of bigger firms? Canning suggests so.
“There are some people who will say they want the big umbrella of the big company, they want to have the trappings that go with that, and the feeling you’ve got that protection – that if the office agency department doesn’t make much one year, another department might bolster it up and you are slightly protected.
“People will see the independents as being at the sharp end and there’s no safety net. You have to be entrepreneurial.”
As Manchester experts, how do they see the market now that everyone is back to the grindstone?
“Brexit created a wobble on the occupational side for a few weeks but we haven’t seen any long-term damage from that,” Canning says. “There’s a feel-good factor. Not a blind feel-good that everything is going to go swimmingly well for the next few years and we’re all going to live happily ever after. But as long as things are happening, with a bit of hard work and application, we can do business.”
To listen to an interview with Mark Canning, visit www.estatesgazette.podbean.com
Canning O’Neill’s clients
- Patrizia – Germany-based asset manager
- Pin Properties – commercial management company based in the North West
- Muse Developments – leading name in mixed-use development and urban regeneration
- Mercer Real Estate – UK-based private property investment firm
- MCR Property Group – privately owned property investment and development company based in Manchester and London
Recent deals
- Off-market letting of 106,000 sq ft in MediaCityUK’s landmark development Soapworks to TalkTalk last summer. Canning O’Neill acted jointly with JLL for Soapworks owners Carlyle Group, Nikal and Abstract Securities
- AJ Bell purchased the long leasehold interest on 94,000 sq ft Number 4 Building at Hunter Real Estate Investment Management’s Exchange Quay in Salford Quays. Canning O’Neill and Savills are joint letting agents on Exchange Quay
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