Piccadilly revamp has £500m in the pipeline

A Ducie Street block is to become a £30m apart-hotel as Manchester developers Capital & Centric rack up a £500m development pipeline around Piccadilly.Capital & Centric and Ares Management Limited have secured planning for their refurbishment of The Place on Ducie Street near Piccadilly.The proposed development of what is currently an operational apart-hotel, will boost room numbers to 166 and also include new ground floor offices and restaurants.The building is understood to have been put on the market earlier this year with a price tag of £30m. London based operator Go Native will manage the newly refurbished rooms.The bonded warehouse has had a chequered past and was formerly owned by Stuart Wall’s Opal student housing group, which fell into administration in 2013. The block was converted from residential to aparthotel in 2008.This is the second deal for Go Native who are also tipped as the operator of Capital & Centric and Henry Boot Developments’ £200 million Kampus scheme which received planning permission last week.The Ducie Street deal means Capital & Centric now have a development pipeline worth around £500m in the Piccadilly area.Although sources at the developer declined to comment, it is understood that they have options on two other buildings in Piccadilly with potential development values of around £50m.Much of the development has been inspired by city council initiatives, such as Allied London’s redevelopment of the London Road fire station and by the arrival in 2033 of the High Speed Two rail line to London.