Quartermile Developments has announced that construction has begun on the final office building at its Edinburgh city centre mixed-use scheme.
The £35m Foster + Partners-designed six-storey building will provide a further 72,991 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation at Quartermile, an investment managed by Moorfield Group.
Called Quartermile 3, it brings the combined gross development value of projects currently underway at Quartermile to in excess of £185m and will create employment opportunities for around 700 people.
News of the construction work follows the recent announcement that the £50m seven-storey Quartermile 4 office building, which is adjacent to Quartermile 3, is 100 per cent pre-let to global, fabless semiconductor company Cirrus Logic and sports entertainment company Fanduel. The companies have leased 70,033 sq ft and 58,567 sq ft respectively.
Quartermile 3 is scheduled to be finished in the fourth quarter of 2017. Along with Quartermile 4, the building is being constructed as a result of an £80m funding deal secured by Quartermile with M&G Real Estate in July 2014 to speculatively develop the remaining two office buildings.
Commenting on the start of the final office building, Paul Curran, managing director of Edinburgh-based property development company Quartermile Developments, said: “There is a great deal of confidence within the Edinburgh commercial property market at the moment. Speculatively developing Quartermile 3 is a unique opportunity as there is a limited pipeline of Grade A office space in the city.
“The fact that we have 100 per cent pre-let Quartermile 4 several months ahead of practical completion has proved the strength of the market and establishes Quartermile as a prime location for occupiers. Now that we have started on site on Quartermile 3 it provides the market with a further 73,000 sq ft of Grade A office space that we will deliver towards the end of 2017.
“Quartermile 3 is the final opportunity for businesses to locate here and become part of a vibrant community unlike anywhere else in Edinburgh, so we are expecting a significant amount of interest.”
Aaron Pope, director, asset management at M&G Real Estate, said: “The significant lack of Grade A space and increasing demand in the city centre, has created this opportunity to speculatively develop Quartermile 3. As Quartermile grows from strength-to-strength we believe occupiers will be attracted to the superb onsite amenities that Quartermile 3 will have to offer.”
Current commercial occupiers at Quartermile include flight search business Skyscanner, Mercer, Investec Wealth and Investment, IBM, law firms Morton Fraser and Maclay Murray & Spens and the Scotch Whisky Association.
Work is also currently underway at the development on two new residential buildings comprising 135 apartments which will complete Quartermile’s southern boundary with the Meadows public park. At the end of last year, it was announced that the University of Edinburgh is locating its new interdisciplinary hub that will unite business and public policy to address societal and environmental challenges within Quartermile.
The development is expected to be completed in 2018. Once concluded, Quartermile will provide Edinburgh with 1,050 apartments of which over 800 are already occupied and another 176 currently being built, 370,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation, 65,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space and seven acres of open landscaping.
