Leeds firm lined up for £87m Manchester office

GMI Construction is being lined up as main contractor on an £87m office block in central Manchester’s Circle Square development.

The Leeds-based builder has been appointed under a pre-construction services agreement by Bruntwood SciTech, a 50:50 joint venture between Bruntwood and Legal & General.

In a construction management plan submitted in January GMI outlined how it would build No.3 Circle Square, which occupies a restricted site close to main roads and neighbouring buildings.

Plans for the 15-storey building were submitted in July last year and approved in November. It will contain office space, outdoor roof terraces and ground floor commercial space.

Designed by local practice Bridge Architects, it will replace a previous £56m scheme by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios that was approved in 2020 but has not started construction.

Others working on the new plans include structural and civil engineer Curtins, principal designer RLB, planning consultant Deloitte and landscape architect Planit IE.

Circle Square consists of a total of 18 development plots on a former BBC site acquired by Bruntwood in 2015 along with adjacent land already owned by the developer and Manchester city council.

It has a total development value of around £750m, with 10 plots already built and operational including two office buildings, a hotel, residential buildings and a student accommodation block.

GMI is also understood to be in the frame for the job to build a £35m biosciences building for Citylabs, a health innovation campus which is also being developed by Bruntwood SciTech with Manchester Science Partnerships and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

If GMI is confirmed as the main contractor on the 125,000sq ft scheme it would replace rival Yorkshire contractor Caddick construction, which was appointed under a pre-construction services agreement.

Others working on that job include lead architect Sheppard Robson, Curtins, Gardiner & Theobald, Arup and Deloitte.

It will be the fourth phase of the campus, which is already home to an operating cluster of biosciences facilities.