Deloitte finds a new home in Manchester – A story of growth and collaboration

Fiona Flanagan is a Chartered Surveyor and Real Estate Consultant working in the Occupiers and Capital Projects (O&CP) team within Real Assets Advisory (RAA) at Deloitte. In this blog she shares her experiences delivering Deloitte’s new Manchester office, which will provide a flexible and innovative workplace designed to support hybrid working for our fast-growing regional team.

During the pandemic, Deloitte Manchester moved from a traditional office environment at Hardman Street into new accommodation at WeWork, in the Hanover building; designed for greater collaboration, connection and flexibility.

This short-term move allowed for Deloitte Manchester to fully embed hybrid working, before committing to a longer-term lease, which in turn has allowed for lessons to be learned and feedback to be captured. This feedback provided a fantastic opportunity to align our hybrid strategy and vision to our physical real estate and deliver an office of the future in one of our most prominent locations in the UK.

This was all made possible via a highly skilled and multi-disciplined team, combining resource and skills from the Real Assets Advisory (RAA) Occupiers and Capital Projects client facing team and the internal real estate team. I have now been part of RAA for over seven years – a team that has an excellent track record of undertaking high profile and complex projects for a diverse set of clients across a number of industries.

In February 2022, I took on the role as Programme Management Office (PMO) Lead for real estate projects across Deloitte’s UK portfolio. As well as delivering new offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Bristol, one of our key projects was managing the selection and delivery of the new Deloitte Manchester office.

Over the course of the project, the PMO Team (myself, Jo Ford, Jonathan Elkins and Kishan Shah) worked together and added value to all aspects of the strategic delivery of the Manchester office relocation project, including:

• Determining spatial requirements;
• Undertaking a market search for an office that met our requirements;
• Collating and reviewing technical due diligence;
• Coordinating the final building selection; and
• Preparing the business case and developing the governance process.

Through our role as PMO, we supported Deloitte in securing 100 Embankment as its new office location in Manchester, with a target occupation of early 2024. 100 Embankment is a high quality and impactful building with a prominent position in the heart of Manchester City Centre.

The office provides a fantastic opportunity to deliver new and innovative workspaces that enable people in the Manchester office to work in a hybrid way with more collaboration spaces and technology that facilitates hybrid meetings.

Since getting the deal over the line, it’s been a joined effort from across RAA. With Johnny Elkins and I coordinating the procurement of an architect, Elle Burrill, Laura Lucas and Sophia Shakur engaging with our people in the Manchester office on all things design and Dave Turner and Alex Smith project managing the construction programme.

The UK Real Estate PMO Team and Sean Beech outside 100 Embankment

It’s been a great experience to build strong and lasting relationships with a number of stakeholders, (both internal and external) and I’m encouraged that this will benefit the wider RAA team in the future. This has included: local Practice Senior Partners, Regional Executive, and the UK Business Executive to review and approve decisions being made across the project at every level.

Through collaboration and sharing expertise, one of the strongest relationships that RAA developed on the project was with our internal Enabling Functions who played a critical role in advising on all elements of delivery from IT, Security, Estates Management, Workplace Strategy and Design and Workplace Services. Throughout the project, we have also developed a strong relationship with Salford City Council (the landlord of 100 Embankment) and we have been able to align on our long-term future of work plans and sustainability ambitions.

The Deloitte Manchester Office relocation is a fantastic and positive story demonstrating our continued commitment to the Regions and UK Levelling Up agenda.

Through collaboration, we have shared best practice and enhanced relationships between RAA and the Enabling functions, local leadership as stakeholders in the local market.

It has been fantastic for the business to use in-house skills and expertise from RAA to deliver a high profile and impactful project and I look forward to taking these out to our external clients.

Finally, as a local, I am proud to have worked on this project and I look forward to seeing our people and clients using the building to connect, collaborate and work in a truly hybrid way.

Written by Fiona Flanagan. Fiona is a Chartered Surveyor and Real Estate Consultant working in the Occupiers and Capital Projects team within Real Assets Advisory at Deloitte.