A three-storey office building in the Jewellery Quarter has been bought just a few months after being placed on the market with a sale price of £650,000.
The Counting House is a self-contained part of the Grade II-listed Derwent Foundry, at 3 Mary Ann Street close to St Paul's Square.
Derwent Foundry is a Victorian building, occupied for more than 70 years by Taylor and Challen which manufactured presses for the jewellery trades but which was later converted into apartments by former owner and developer MCD with a new wing.
The Counting House was developed at this time and is an office building with 8,540 sq ft of space, partly new build and partly from the Victorian Foundry.
The building is let to Wonderful World Models which has recently moved in and opened the Counting House as a visitor attraction, café and retail outlet for a range of models, including trains and planes.
The new owners are private investors, and according to Cushman & Wakefield, there was stiff competition to buy the building, which was offered for sale at £650,000.
Cameron Thomson, senior surveyor at Cushman & Wakefield, said the sale was further evidence of the growing popularity of the Jewellery Quarter, which had seen the refurbishment of a number of dilapidated buildings in recent years.
"There is a growing confidence in the Jewellery Quarter as an up-and-coming area and it is becoming very popular both amongst occupiers and investors who are looking for stock outside the major prime centres, in order to get better returns at a time when economic confidence remains," he said.
"This building is effectively new, dating from 2006 when MCD were involved in converting the main Taylor and Challen foundry, another example of an old building associated with the jewellery trade being brought back to life."
