Boutique aparthotel brand Native has announced the opening of a 166-key property within the newly reimagined Ducie Street Warehouse in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Occupying eight floors of the Grade II listed former industrial structure, the 180,000ft² project marks the UK’s largest aparthotel, and has been designed by Archer Humphreys Architects with an emphasis on the building’s legacy.

Featuring elements of the warehouse’s past by way of original cast-iron columns, a vast central atrium, exposed barrel-arched brickwork, bespoke Conran furniture and parquet flooring, Native Manchester shares the structure with the newly opened Cultureplex, a ground floor social hub by restaurateurs David Waddington and Pablo Flack comprising the 80-seat Bistrotheque restaurant, a Mini-Cini, coffee counter and event and workspace. Fitness brand Blok has also used this space to open its first studio outside of London.

“This has been an extraordinary opportunity to take one of the great icons of Manchester’s industrial past and turn it into a major cultural and social destination for the city,” says Guy Nixon, founder and CEO of Native. “Manchester is a thriving, culturally rich and fast expanding city so it seems apt that we are unveiling the new breed of Native’s aparthotels here at Ducie Street. We wanted to do something spectacular and recognised that hoteliers are rarely known for operating destination F&B offerings. As well as creating uniquely spacious aparthotel rooms in this magnificent space, we set out to identify an F&B operator that could bring the vast ground floor space alive by offering something truly unique to the Manchester market as well as to our aparthotel guests.”

Future Native sites under development include those in Leeds, York, Bristol, Oxford and London’s Soho.

www.nativeplaces.com