In 2016, Hines and German investment company Universal-Investment acquired Royal Exchange in Manchester city centre. The acquisition was made for an institutional real estate fund on the platform of Universal-Investment, administered and managed on behalf of Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), Germany’s largest pension scheme group.
In addition to housing the 700-seat Royal Exchange theatre, the 264,000-square-foot building incorporates 81,000 square feet of retail and leisure space and 121,000 square feet of office space. The office space is currently being comprehensively refurbished to create highly specified modern space, of which 82,000 square feet is available to lease.