Bruntwood, one of the UK’s leading commercial property companies, has today received planning approval for a revolutionary workspace and leisure destination, ‘The Alberton’, in Manchester city centre.
The current Alberton House on St. Mary’s Parsonage will be replaced with a striking 18-storey office building, housing the UK’s highest workspace pool.
The development will prompt considerable job creation across building management, hospitality provision and customer expansion, estimated to support 1,740 full time employees and an annual GVA contribution of £131 million.
With a nod to the city’s industrial heritage, The Alberton’s focal point is its rooftop holistic wellness centre, the first of its kind in the UK. As well as the performance lap pool, it will also feature a hydrotherapy vitality pool, hot and cold treatment rooms, physio room, changing and shower facilities. The wellness centre has been designed with sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity in mind, ensuring that it is a welcoming space for all.
On the 17th floor, approved plans include a landscaped panoramic roof terrace with commanding views across the city, plus an events space and customer lounge. An additional food and beverage outlet on the 18th floor will serve nutritious options to complement the focus of the wellness centre and offer customers a healthier and convenient choice at work.
The Alberton’s publicly accessible ground floor will create an open, welcoming connection and gateway from Salford between the Trinity Bridge walkway and St Mary’s Parsonage, featuring a hospitality offering across the entire floor, including a full-service restaurant, bar and coffee shop, with seating spilling out onto a landscaped and extended public realm, providing amenity for the wider area as well as the building’s customers.
The ground floor mezzanine will feature a coworking lounge and a variety of meeting rooms, with Bruntwood Works’ full product stack available throughout the building. Meanwhile, on the lower ground floor, customers will benefit from a fully equipped gym, a cycle hub complete with showers, changing and vanity areas, lockers, cycle repair station and cycle storage.
The Alberton will operate at net zero carbon and is targeting BREEAM New Construction 2018 Excellent Rating and NABERS UK Design for Performance Agreement 5.5 star. The development will feature glazing detailing to reduce solar gain and ambient loop heating and cooling to allow for greater efficiency and zonal control.
Ciara Keeling, CEO of Bruntwood Works, commented: “Gaining planning approval for The Alberton marks another landmark moment in our efforts to revolutionise the workspace, not just in Manchester but across the UK. We have always been focused on customer wellbeing and these plans launch us even further into the journey of creating workspaces that champion work/life balance. The importance of this has never been greater, as our society faces considerable challenges.
“The Alberton will provide an exemplary model of what workspaces can achieve, going further than we ever have in our Pioneer programme. This is particularly evident in the holistic wellness centre that will act as the heart of the development and offer our customers an unrivalled wellbeing experience. This level of amenity will help businesses offer staff the ultimate workspace experience, encouraging a greater return to the office whilst supporting a healthy work/life balance.
“This new space incorporates everything we have learned over the last few years of studying changes in how our customers interact with workspaces and listening to their ongoing feedback. We truly believe that we have created something that will provide a blueprint for accessible and inclusive offices.”
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