The new co-working concept is designed to cater for freelance and start-up businesses looking for a presence in the heart of Manchester, with fixed prices and ultra-fast Internet connectivity.
Bruntwood plans to bring together four Victorian warehouse buildings at the junction of Portland Street and Oxford Street, starting with the creation of the co-working space at 127 Portland Street.
Ian Wilson, Property Marketing Manager for Bruntwood comments: “The idea is to build on the community of creative and like-minded businesses who already reside here. We’re creating a new space where freelancers, start-ups, or small businesses can collaborate and work together with all-inclusive prices and great Internet connectivity. We’ve had a lot of demand for this type of space in Manchester.
“We’re looking to redesign a number of spaces within the four buildings of 113, 117 and 127 Portland Street and 61 Oxford Street which we collectively know as ‘West Village’, to see how we can add value and amenity for our customers and better reflect how creative-minded businesses work.”
Working closely with Metronet (UK), Bruntwood’s ISP Partner, the co-working space will provide customers with ultra-fast connectivity with speeds of up to 100 Mbit per second as standard - the fastest connection in a co-working space in Manchester city centre.
Desks can be secured for £175 + vat per month on an all-inclusive basis. This monthly fee includes ultra-fast Internet, service charge, access to meeting spaces, bike racks, lockers and a daily cleaning service as well as unlimited tea and coffee.
Bruntwood has been working with Atul Bansal from The Sheila Bird Group to consult on the design of the 2,200 sq ft space and commented: “Typically we’ve seen when developers attempt to create co-working spaces, they end up feeling quite ‘forced’ and quite ‘corporate’ but Bruntwood understand that building a business community is an organic process and it takes time.
“These kinds of businesses don’t want a Grade A polished space - they want a desk, fixed prices, some wall space, great Internet connectivity and ideally a window to open - that’s it.
“We’ve purposely left the walls of the space quite bare, so as Bruntwood welcome more ambitious small and young businesses to the building over the coming months, we’d like them to leave their mark and influence the look and feel of the space.”
