The former Freemasons Lodge on Manningham Lane, Bradford has exchanged hands thanks to the efforts of leading commercial property agent, Eddisons.
The company, which has offices in Little Germany, sold the Grade II listed building off a £1.5million guide price to Nirmal Singh Properties - a local developer that was working in partnership with Nirmal Razai Mart & Co Ltd.
“Despite it having outline planning permission for residential redevelopment, the property proved challenging to sell due to its listed status and the fact a great deal of the interior also needed to be kept intact,” said Eddisons’ Jonathan O’Connor.
“In fact the restrictions of the outline planning permission were so tight that a number of residential developers were put off the property, and as a result we had to review our marketing in order to take into account the possibility of commercial redevelopment,” he continued.
As a result of this change in focus, the Connaught Rooms will now be refurbished and offered as high quality serviced offices.
Iqbal Singh Sekhon, the proprietor of Sekhon and Firth Solicitors and representative of Nirmal Singh Properties said of the purchase; “we already operate serviced offices out of Commercial House on Manningham Lane and in the last year alone the demand for space has been so high we could have filled the property five times over. As a result, we’re confident that the Connaught Rooms will prove to be a popular and successful venture.”
Nirmal Singh Properties has been operating in Bradford for more than 30-years, during which time it has bought and successfully redeveloped well over 80 properties, including the Marlborough Cinema, Industry Mills and Commercial House.