Catalyst Capital, the European real estate and asset management company, has started work on the refurbishment of an historic Manchester city centre office block — once used by Winston Churchill for Second World War strategy meetings.
London-based Catalyst bought Arkwright House early last year for £11m and immediately announced plans to renovate and enlarge the 87,000 sq ft Parsonage Gardens building. When complete the scheme will add another 13,000 sq ft and upgrade the entire offering to Grade A office status.
Designed in a neo-classical style by architect Harry Fairhurst for the English Sewing Cotton Company, the 1937 completed building was also recently granted Grade II listed protection because of its special architecture and historical significance.
During World War Two, Arkwright House was regularly used for strategy meetings between Churchill and his senior military officers. Although the war room has survived — located directly beneath the ground floor Revolution Bar — there is no trace of the prime minister’s office and sleeping quarters.
When Catalyst, which also has offices in Paris, Frankfurt and Warsaw, acquired the building last year there were two office tenants; auditors Crowe Clark Whitehill and executive search consultants Howgate Sable & Partners. Three quarters of the building was vacant.
Catalyst — which until 2011 also owned the 71,000s q ft Ship Canal House in Manchester’s King Street — has now appointed the creative and strategic agency, DS.Emotion, to rebrand and market its latest acquisition.
“DS.Emotion is clearly a specialist in property marketing and we were very impressed with its ‘place making’ principals,” said Giles Hall from Catalyst Capital. “The team interpreted the brief well and the proposals were sensitive to the historical values of the building alongside the need to present a 21st century solution for potential prime space occupiers.”
In a statement the Leeds-based agency said it intended to “deliver all on- and off-line marketing materials including virtual tours, a new marketing suite, public relations and sponsorship advice throughout the refurbishment and marketing exercise”. Recently, DS.Emotion has completed successful marketing campaigns for other commercial schemes including Wellington Place and Thorpe Park in Leeds.
Although Arkwright House has been described as “sinister” by one architecture critic, suggesting it shares some similarities with Nazi architecture, the consensus is that the façade facing Parsonage Gardens is architecturally “impressive”. In 1996, at the height of the IRA’s mainland offensive, it was badly damaged during the Manchester bombing and needed several months of repair work.
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