Island

About Island

Island is a 100,000 sq ft, 10-storey Grade A commercial development in Manchester city centre, delivered as a £66m project by HBD with net-zero carbon performance from day one. Achieving a 5-star NABERS Design Review rating and a 46% reduction in energy use compared to the 2020 benchmark, the building was designed from the outset to set a new standard for sustainable commercial development in the region.

With 60% of the building pre-let to one primary tenant prior to practical completion - spanning five floors and 45,000 square feet - Island needed a digital infrastructure that could serve the developer, the operator, and a major anchor tenant simultaneously, without compromise. Behind this multi-stakeholder operation sits Smart Core, the open building operating system that connects every system into a single, coherent environment.

The challenge

HBD set out to deliver more than a high-performing building. They needed a technology strategy that avoided the fragmentation and siloes that typically undermine long-term asset performance. With multiple building systems, demanding ESG targets, and future tenant flexibility all in play, the building required a digital foundation capable of supporting landlord operations, building management, and tenant platforms from a single, secure layer.

At the same time, the tenant had specific requirements of their own, needing clear, real-time visibility of energy use, occupancy, comfort, and security across their five leased floors - all feeding into their existing Facilio workplace platform. The challenge was delivering this without creating separate, parallel integrations for each building system.

Traditional building management approaches couldn't achieve the level of integration, multi-tenancy, or operational simplicity the project demanded. Island needed a true building operating system.

The Smart Core solution

Smart Core was deployed as the digital backbone of Island, acting as the single integration layer between the building's physical systems and the platforms used to manage and monitor them.

Working alongside Vanti as Master Systems Integrator, and the wider project team including HBD, CBRE, and Overbury, Smart Core brought together every operational system into one open, unified environment.

Key solutions included:

• Integration of all major building subsystems - BMS, lighting, access control, metering, and energy monitoring - into a single data environment via ten Beckhoff area controllers.

• Secure tenant data isolation, giving them a dedicated view of energy, HVAC, lighting, and occupancy data across their five leased floors only, with no visibility of other tenant or landlord data.

• Facilio integration powered by Smart Core, providing the tenant with a single, normalised data feed rather than requiring separate connections to each building system. This delivers automated FM reporting and the data foundation for corporate ESG and net-zero reporting.

• Deployment of Smart Core Connect for Visitor Management systems, extending the integration model into security and marking only the second deployment of this capability in the UK.

• Open, scalable architecture designed to remain vendor-neutral and adaptable, ready for future systems such as visitor management, IoT sensors, and evolving tenant technologies.

By building Island's digital layer on Smart Core, the team ensured that all systems worked together from the outset, and that the building could evolve without disruptive or costly rework.

The value

Island now operates on a single converged infrastructure that eliminates the duplication and complexity of managing standalone systems. Operator workstations have been reduced by over 50%, and the platform-based approach gives the building the flexibility to adapt as tenants, technologies, and regulations change.

For the tenant, five floors of building data flow into their Facilio dashboards in real time, supporting day-to-day facilities management, automated reporting, and the transparency needed for corporate sustainability commitments. The tenant fit-out, delivered by Overbury in just 25 weeks, achieved both BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Platinum certification.

For the building as a whole, the results speak for themselves: net-zero carbon from day one, a 46% reduction in energy use, and a 5-star NABERS Design Review with a target of 5.5 stars in operation.

In conclusion

From a Smart Core perspective, Island demonstrates how a building operating system can unify complex, multi-stakeholder requirements into a single, coherent digital environment, without imposing complexity on the people who use or operate the building.

By connecting systems, isolating tenant data, and feeding normalised information into third-party platforms like Facilio, Smart Core turns technology from a collection of siloed systems into a strategic asset that supports leasing, operations, sustainability, and long-term value.

Island is proof that when integration is embedded at the core of a building's design - not bolted on afterwards - the result is a smarter, more efficient, and genuinely future-ready asset.