90 Princess Street, Manchester - the Beech Group of Companies' Latest Success Story

When The Beech Group purchased the building it consisted of 17 partly-completed low quality student 'pod' units with a restaurant on the ground floor. Their vision was to transform the building into a highly energy efficient development of 35 apartments for the young professional market, together with a ground floor retail component. The ground floor commercial units were pre-let to Spar and Cheeky Monkey Coffee.

The Beech Group's proposal was welcomed with 'open arms' by the Head of City Centre Planning at Manchester City Council who is keen to avoid vacant buildings falling into disrepair. The Council are strong supporters of sustainable building and therefore considered Beech's proposal to be a 'best-case scenario', and as they come with 'an excellent pedigree' in terms of past performance, planning was soon granted. Beech Properties quickly demonstrated this reputation as justified by completing a chemical clean of the external stone facade at the start of the building works in order to improve the street's visual impact. This further cemented a good working relationship with the pro-development Council and we know that our civic leaders will continue to offer strong support for the sustainable redevelopment of vacant buildings, seeing The Beech Group as a pro-active partner in this regard.    

The project was delivered with the same high specification air-source heat pumps and heat recovery system that have been installed in Beech's extensive student property portfolio.

The result is a high yielding, sustainable product with incredibly low operating costs which will have a beneficial effect over the lifetime of the building. The building has achieved a BREEAM 'Outstanding' rating. This is a first for Manchester and is the only multi-residential building to achieve this standard in the North-West.  

The project was completed, including all apartments sold, within the original estimated timescale of 16 months.

According to Stephen Beech: "In my quest to make Manchester greener, I hope to attract more investment to help me roll out my low carbon model across the city. Current demand for green, energy efficient properties, is far outstripping supply. I just can't renovate properties fast enough."

Stephen Beech is an award-winning landlord. Among his accolades are included Best Energy Efficient Refurbishment at the Environment and Energy Awards, and Pioneer of the Year at the Renewable Energy Awards. In addition, in 2012 he was voted Green Landlord of the Year and received his first global commendation in energy excellence at the Global Energy Institute Awards. Moreover, his projects are highly valued.

In addition to being very well recognised throughout the press (BBC, Residential Property Investor or Manchester Evening News, among others), Stephen Beech has received a commendation from Prince Charles.

Contact information:
Beech Holdings Ltd.
[email protected]
http://www.beechholdings.co.uk