Aneel Mussarat’s Classic Homes has boosted its commercial presence in Manchester with new investment purchases and the appointment of Colliers CRE investment boss Mark Hayes.
The company has spent £30m on the 155,000 sq ft Hyde shopping centre in east Manchester which it wants to increase by 100,000 sq ft.
It has also bought the GMPTE building on Portland Street in central Manchester for an undisclosed sum, which it plans to turn into a redeveloped 60,000 sq ft office scheme with an end value of £22m.
WHR and Dunlop Haywards will be joint agents.
Classic also recently paid £5m for the 21,000 sq ft Wellington House in Manchester’s Piccadilly.
Hayes was formerly head of investment Colliers CRE in Manchester and set up the Manchester office of Gooch & Wagstaff in 1994.
He will take responsibility for expanding the company’s commercial investment and development portfolio by a proposed £400m during the next two years.
Mussarat also owns Towergate Developments and Manchester Student Village and has a combined property portfolio worth £350m.
A planned re-branding exercise will see his various companies renamed MCR Property Group this summer.
References: EGi News 19/05/06
