CERT Property Office Quarter Manchester

Manchester is a hotbed for investment and development – and we’re delighted to be back in the area for the North West event later this month. The North West Development Plans Conference will hear from many senior speakers including CERT Property and we hear about their exciting work in the area:

 

CERT Property is a property development consultancy based in Manchester. Tell us a little about your business and the work that you do?

CERT Property is a development and investment management business. We provide solutions for individuals and businesses looking to invest in the UK property market by creating exciting spaces to live and work. We take a proactive and hands on approach to add value to real estate, through development and effective management. You work in partnership with clients on the acquisition,  development and management of real estate assets across a variety of sectors.

 

What current development and regeneration plans are ongoing/in the pipeline?

 

We aim to develop inspiring to work live and play to satisfy the demand from Manchester’s vibrant young professional communities.  We seek to add value to the locations and neighbourhoods that we invest in to, this may be by our forward thinking design, such as our office redevelopment of Hilton House in Manchester where we have sought to provide not just a contemporary working environment, but facilities and amenities within the building that provide well-being for tenants within the building – for example an on-site gym with personal trainers for tenants, juice bar with bespoke diet plans, breakout and siesta spaces. We also seek to add value by our implementation of technology within our developments. Our scheme on John Dalton Street in Manchester sees all apartments come equipped with a fully integrated voice controlled system for heating, lighting, security, even ordering an Uber can be done from vocal demand.

 

Why is a collaborative approach crucial to new development projects?

It is crucial as there are so many stakeholders when it comes to development, particularly in urban developments where you are in the centre of densely populated areas. Stakeholders aren’t just the council or funding partners or buyers, but also the people whose lives you are often dropping something completely brand new in the middle of. Most important is communication and taking a consultative approach with all stakeholders in any given project.

Residential developments are something you work on frequently. Obviously, the market place is changing with the likes of build-to-rent becoming more and more popular. What changes are you seeing in the marketplace and how is this affecting the approach to developments?

The professionalisation of the urban residential rental market is having profound changes on what tenants come to expect as part of their experience in renting. Ultimately, they are customers and it is about time that the sector saw professional landlords come in and treat tenants as customers and understand the need to provide a positive experience, not just in terms of the property itself, but the facilities and amenities and the customer service. Tenants have more choice than ever and the old adage of location location location to me is now more like location, facilities & service.

Building a property is one thing – but integrating them into the existing community is another. How do you approach placemaking and what are your goals when developing new buildings and properties?

Be congruent with the market you are entering – understand the community and area you are entering and what it’s needs are and how can you improve the area. For example with Hilton House we’ve gone a long way to ensure that what we are doing is consistent with the identity of the Northern Quarter. We’ve agreed leases with local operators to bring F&B and leisure offerings to the building when we had lots of interest from national chains. Why? Because local independent businesses and entrepreneurs are what have made the Northern Quarter so special so we wanted to ensure that we continued to support local businesses and the area’s identity.

What impact will this have on the local economy/communities etc?

As well as creating homes which are designed to suit the life of a modern young professional and creating inspiring office environments to work in, our schemes in Manchester and the surrounding areas will also create a vast number of jobs through construction and also once complete, through property management. The regeneration of areas in which we work also improves and strengthens the community as The delivery of purpose built residential properties also frees up other housing stock that may be rented by students or young professionals for young families and other local residents.

How would you usually procure when developing new schemes and projects?

We generally approach procurement a bit differently than most others as rather than tendering our schemes to the market, we usually seek to engage directly with local companies and contractors based on their experience and relevance to the job. All our schemes currently on site or about to go on site are with locally based contractors. We prefer to support local businesses and supply chains wherever possible. For example, our smart home tech I mentioned earlier that we are installing in a number of our developments is technology developed by a local Manchester-based start-up; our contractor on Hilton House is a 100-plus year old family run construction company based in Ancoats.

You’re based in Manchester and have a real flurry of projects within the city. Tell us a little about the projects currently ongoing in the city and where these schemes are up to?

We do indeed have a flurry! Hilton House is one of our ongoing projects in the Northern Quarter, which is a 35,000 sq ft office building that we are comprehensively renovating and extending. Works are now well underway and we expect to welcome first tenants to the building in August. Our scheme on John Dalton Street of 4 bespoke apartments has just completed with the furniture and final touches added at the beginning of April. In Ancoats, we also have our apartment scheme, Popworks, comprising of just 28 apartments which is scheduled for completion in May. We also
have a number of projects in Trafford. The first of these, Kinetic, started on site beginning of January and is due to complete phase 1 comprising of 42 apartments in September 2019. Next door is our Insignia project where we are in partnership with Salboy. We have just completed the purchase of land and completed the site preparation . Over at Merchant’s Quay we have 3 office buildings that we are looking to refurbish.

Do you have any immediate plans in the pipeline for new work in Manchester?

Yes, whilst it really shouldn’t be the case in business we have a strong emotional bias guiding us to continue to invest in Manchester over and above other locations/cities. Whilst our continued focus on Manchester is partly down to our civic pride in our city, there still remains a compelling investment case for further investing in to this great city so we are already in negotiations on a number of sites to bring forward further projects.

Why is Manchester such a hotbed for investment and development?

It is really down to the strength of the economy, driven by our talented young population, fantastic infrastructure and relatively low cost base. Manchester City Council have done an amazing job in boosting the international recognition of the city as a place for investment. Manchester is recognised worldwide not only for the culture, sports and history but also its universities and the energetic culture of innovation.

Obviously, the land-value in Manchester is particularly high, is this why you’ve looked outside of the city to the East Midlands for your Crocus Street development?

Whilst we still see Manchester as having a strong investment case, the land value expectations in some areas of the market in the city do make it challenging. This isn’t the reason for investing in to Nottingham as we made this investment a couple of years ago. We really like the story Nottingham has. There are lots of similarities with Manchester in that they are both post industrial cities that have been successful in repositioning their economies to modern service sector based economies. Additionally Nottingham, similar to Manchester, has fantastic universities and a large student
population which gives it a great talent pool with which to attract employers to the city.

What is the future vision for CERT Property?

We are not driven by figures as targets, what we will continue to do is be consistent in our values and approach, to ensure we continue to invest into, and develop properties that excite us and that we believe in.

The Manchester Development Plans Conference will bring together over 180 senior professionals from across the built environment industry. Why is this event an important date in the calendar?

With Manchester economy thriving and the demand from investors and occupiers strong, this event is essential to get an insight into the current market, our projects and how current affairs affect the development area. This is an opportunity that should not be missed for anyone who is within the property and construction sectors.