Manchester's Circle Square Premier Inn site sold to Aviva

Aviva Investors has completed the £45m forward funding of an area within Manchester's Circle Square development, which is being developed as a Premier Inn hotel.

The asset management business has taken on a 16-storey building, which will include a 158-bedroom Premier Inn above a multi-storey car park.

The project, due to complete in August 2020, forms part of Bruntwood SciTech and Select Property Group's £750m development. The whole site is expected to create more than 1,700 new homes, 1.2 million sq ft of workspace, two hotels, 100,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space for shops, restaurants and bars, along with a large central green space to the former BBC Oxford Road site.

The development is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2020.

John Osborn, director, real estate, and fund manager at Aviva Investors, said: "Manchester is one of our core cities within our UK real estate strategy, which focuses on investments in durable, high-quality real estate assets in strong economic locations."

Christopher Dee acted as advisor to Aviva Investors. Addleshaw Goddard advised Bruntwood.