Bruntwood rebrands former Royal Eye Hospital as Citilab

The former Royal Eye Hospital in Manchester has been relaunched by office space specialist Bruntwood as Citilab – a worldwide centre of excellence for bio health development.

The building is a city landmark and is located on Oxford Road, at the heart of Europe's biggest clinical academic campus. In its revamped form, it has 100,000 sq ft of space, some of which has already been let to organisations such as TRUSTECH, The Central Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Charity and The Manchester College.

It is equipped with wards purpose-built for clinical trials, biomedical laboratories and networking areas, all of which are designed to assist the development of new products and services in the medical field.

Chris Oglesby, chief executive of Bruntwood, said: "The science agenda and growing our customer base in this sector are important parts of Bruntwood’s growth plans. We are delighted to announce the new name, Citilab, alongside welcoming new customers to our portfolio. We are looking forward to working in partnership with them and supporting their plans."

The chief executive of The Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Mike Deegan, said that the organisation was excited to be involved and was pleased at the prospect of creating new treatments within the premises. Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese highlighted the importance of the scheme for the city, as it will create jobs and support economic growth.

The Manchester College plans to use its facilities to train medical staff, while TRUSTECH aims to improve healthcare across the UK with the development of high-quality products and services.

The original red-brick building was founded in the early 1800s on the same site as St Mary's Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary. It is now grade II listed and until 2009 specialised in the teaching and practice of ophthalmology. These services have now been moved to the new Royal Eye Hospital.

Bruntwood offers a wide selection of office suites and function rooms Manchester to suit requirements from everyday business to training conferences. Facilities such as serviced virtual offices serviced virtual offices are also available, for businesses needing flexibility.

Website: http://www.bruntwood.co.uk/.

Richard Frost

Bruntwood is a family owned commercial property company with over 30 years' experience of providing great offices. Bruntwood owns over 100 office buildings in Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. It provides office space, serviced offices and virtual offices, from one desk for one month, to entire office buildings for 25 years. Bruntwood also offers retail space and meeting rooms to hire within its buildings. The essential elements of the Bruntwood promise are to provide a wide choice of offices, commercial flexibility, world class customer service and long-term value for money. Each year Bruntwood donates over 10% of its annual profits to arts, civic and charitable causes and takes every opportunity to involve its customers.