Plans submitted for transformation of Manchester's Pall Mall into sustainability and wellbeing Pioneer

Bruntwood Works, the workspace, retail and leisure arm of Bruntwood has submitted a planning application to redesign and revitalise the Grade II listed Pall Mall in the heart of Manchester city centre.

Located on King Street, the property will include 85,000 sq ft of office and hospitality space across three blocks and was acquired by Bruntwood, one of the UK’s leading commercial property companies, in October 2021.

Having sat mostly vacant for four years, the building will now become a sustainability and wellbeing hub as part of Bruntwood Works’ £200m Pioneer programme that creates vibrant, community and innovation focussed workspaces centred on six key pillars: biophilia, art, sustainability, wellness, amenity and technology. Neo, Blackfriars House, 111 Piccadilly, Bloc and The Alberton and are also part of the Pioneer scheme in Manchester.

Aimed at the ‘consciously-minded’, Pall Mall will be home to businesses that demonstrate strong ESG credentials. In doing so, Bruntwood Works aims to establish an ecosystem of businesses that are mutually beneficial to one another and help the city realise its ambition to be more socially and environmentally sustainable.

Works seek to protect and preserve the cultural and historical significance of the building, whilst delivering a best in class reinvention of an ageing, energy inefficient asset into an operationally net zero carbon development. The fit out will be approached with a circular economy model in mind to create Bruntwood Works’ most sustainable serviced space to date, incorporating details such as timber partitions and individually metered serviced suites so customers can understand their specific energy use. 

The ground floor redesign will create a hospitality-style arrival experience for customers, which the Bruntwood Works Pioneer buildings are now known for. The new entrance, located in the former main access point entrance on King Street, will also be repositioned to the centre of the building to create an outdoor piazza in a previously unused space, to provide further amenity for all customers. This will also help to ease congestion on busy King Street, creating a calming welcome experience. 

Wellbeing is also a key focus at Pall Mall, with a wellness studio and gym, cycle store, high end showers and changing area, towel service, drying room and ironing space all planned, to encourage a healthy and productive workforce.

Pall Mall will also introduce a number of new amenities, including a coffee shop, coworking lounge, a range of multi-functional meeting rooms, screening room, pitch and presentation area, conferencing pods and roof terrace, as well as Bruntwood Works’ full product range from day passes as part of the Pay As You Go programme, to serviced, managed and leased office space. 

The interior refurbishment of the Grade II listed building will be a nod to the building’s beginnings, creating a mid-century look and feel featuring warm timbers, natural finishes, and rich, earthy tones. Externally, the Grade II listed windows and mosaics will be restored or replaced with performance-enhanced substitutions. Bruntwood Works will work to protect the cultural and historical significance of the building, while also striving for operational net zero carbon status. 

Pall Mall will form part of a cluster of city centre properties, with Bloc, Manchester Club, Bond (formerly known as 38-42 Mosley Street) and 57 Spring Gardens, allowing customers to benefit from shared facilities and services. This connected community will have access to collaborative coworking and community areas, enhanced wellbeing facilities and a regular programme of inspiring business support services and events.

Ciara Keeling, CEO of Bruntwood Works, said: “This announcement marks a major milestone in our reinvention of the iconic Pall Mall building in the heart of the city centre. Complementing and bolstering our existing cluster of innovative and dynamic workspaces, it will become a unique sustainability hub that will allow us to help our consciously minded customers and the wider city to reach its net zero ambitions. Given the complexity of retrofitting of a listed building, we are aiming for our redevelopment of Pall Mall to provide a blueprint for projects in future, as this provides a more sustainable option than demolishing and building new. 

“Our ambition to create thriving cities will see us continue to bring innovation to the forefront of Manchester’s office market, providing unparalleled workspaces that offer inspiration and flexibility while also championing wellbeing, hospitality and sustainability.”

The Pall Mall project team supporting developer Bruntwood Works includes architect Sheppard Robson, Ramboll as sustainability consultants, Deloitte as planning consultants, heritage consultant Stephen Levrant Heritage Architecture and structural engineers DWLLP.