New Bruntwood Platform Promises Batteries, Personalised Offices And Smart Buildings
Battery power, personalised spaces and smart offices will be at the heart of Bruntwood Works, the new platform created by the Manchester-based developer.
Bruntwood Works Chief Executive Ciara Keeling, speaking at the Bisnow Manchester Office Mania event, said they were “on a journey to understand what a smart building is”.
Bruntwood Works, which specialises in coworking, virtual offices and serviced offices along with traditional leasing, embraces 2,000 resident businesses in premises not included in the joint venture with Legal & General Capital. Bruntwood SciTech, their science and technology floorspace venture, is already expanding in Manchester and Birmingham.
“We want to find ways to support uses to create operational efficiencies,” Keeling said, pointing to insights learned at the refurbished 66K SF Union building, Albert Square, Manchester.
Keeling also hinted at further developments with Tesla battery technology as the developer becomes the first commercial developer in the U.K. to sign up to the Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Commitment.
The Net Zero Carbon Commitment aims for new buildings to be net zero carbon emitting by 2030 and old buildings the same by 2050, Keeling said.
In May this year, one of the SciTech partnerships’ flagship assets, the 70K SF Bright Building at Manchester Science Park, became the first commercial building in the North West to install a Tesla commercial battery. The installation is part of a longer term strategy to make the building an energy island, reducing the reliance on the National Grid and increasing its ability to use renewable energy sources.
It is also looking to expand its offering to tenants.
“We’re looking close at personalised space. We’ve already launched a new Tailor Made customised design and management product for occupiers who want bespoke offices without the outlay up front, and there is more there we can do,” Keeling said.
CORRECTION, 8.34 A.M. ET 13 November 2018: An earlier version of this story suggested that Bruntwood Works was part of the the joint venture between Legal & General and Bruntwood. That is not the case.
