Bruntwood SciTech has commenced work on its £13 million refurbishment of King’s House in Manchester city centre, home to celebrity haunt San Carlo as well as traditional Korean restaurant Koreana.
The ground floor restaurants will remain open while Bruntwood gets to work on the four floors above, meaning that if Russell Crowe, Rihanna, or any of the hordes of Premier League footballers who have favoured San Carlo for their pizza fix over the years want to drop by again, they shouldn’t be too inconvenienced.
Anticipated to complete in Summer 2025, Bruntwood promises that the project “will seamlessly blend the rich heritage of the 38,000 sq ft building with modern amenities, enhancing the workspace experience for businesses in the heart of the city.”
King’s House is located within the St Mary’s Parsonage regeneration area on King Street West, and will be the first office scheme to be delivered within the area, showcasing the district’s status as an evolving business hub.
The iconic five-storey building will offer a total of 12 workspaces for teams of 12 to 110, ensuring businesses can flex and scale as they need. King’s House will be fully fitted and furnished, with office spaces including kitchens, meeting rooms, phone booths and breakout areas, ensuring businesses can move in as soon as the works are complete. There is also a self-contained workspace on the ground floor, offering one company the opportunity to create a dedicated private entrance with personalised interior and exterior design.
Workspaces range from 1,000 to 10,000 sq ft, making them perfect for businesses seeking a modern workspace in a heritage building, in the heart of the city centre, with a huge range of retail, restaurants and amenities mere steps from their office (or downstairs in at least two cases), and is conveniently situated with extensive transport links across Manchester.
Building on the success of Blackfriars’ House, businesses located at King’s House will also benefit from access to the nearby building, which is currently undergoing refurbishment to create a new wellness floor with a free–to-use gym, meeting rooms, and changing facilities.
The King’s House arrival area will offer a lounge area and breakout spaces for collaboration and socialising, and a fourth floor communal lounge will provide a purpose-built space for customers to host private events and meetings. The lower ground floor is set to include wellness amenities including secure cycle storage, with cycle access from the front of the building and a dedicated cycle lift, high quality showers and changing areas, and a contemplation room.
Bruntwood SciTech has partnered with EPR Architects to ensure that King’s House embodies design elements in keeping with the building’s heritage and creates a hospitality-style experience, and original features such as beams and terrazzo flooring will be retained.
Sustainabile features will include the installation of new double-glazed windows, a modernised roof, improved wall insulation, LED lighting, high efficiency air source heat pumps and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. The building is targeting an EPC A on completion, a significant achievement for a building of this age.
Businesses at King’s House will be able to access Bruntwood SciTech’s growth support, including direct access to funding and investors, skilled talent, and an extensive academic and public partner network. They will also benefit from joining Bruntwood SciTech’s UK-wide ecosystem of 1,100 startups, scale-ups and global innovation-led businesses, and in Manchester will join a network of 21 city centre innovation hubs and four campuses, offering collaboration opportunities, access to year-round community events and even more facilities.
Bruntwood SciTech is also redeveloping nearby Pall Mall, also on King Street, as part of a £30m scheme which commenced construction in February and is set to open in Summer 2025. Pall Mall will include a state-of-the-art gym, independent cafe, lounge and library space, and roof terrace with panoramic views across Manchester’s skyline.
Joshua Hancock, associate commercial director, Bruntwood SciTech said: “Starting on site at King’s House marks yet another exciting milestone in our plans to enhance and improve our workspaces across Manchester city centre, where we already have major new developments underway both at our campus locations and other city centre innovation hubs, such as Pall Mall on King Street, No. 3 Circle Square, Citylabs 4.0, and most recently, Greenheys at Manchester Science Park.
“As a company dedicated to powering economies through innovation in our cities, we’re excited to offer these new high-quality workspaces and provide access to a Manchester and UK-wide connected ecosystem to support businesses meet their growth aspirations and help them with the connections they need.”
A local team has been appointed to work with Bruntwood SciTech on the redevelopment of King’s House, consisting of EPR Architects, main contractor Amspec, planning and heritage consultancy from Paul Butler Associates, fire engineering from Hilson Moran, and structural engineering from DW Consulting Engineers. Bruntwood SciTech’s agents for King’s House are OBI and Knight Frank.
