Building Briefs – January 26th

Property consultancy CBRE has been tasked with selling the former Dunnes department store on Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street.

The iconic, Art Deco building, 218 – 224 Sauchiehall Street occupies a prominent corner location on one of Glasgow’s busiest shopping thoroughfares, extending to 46,500 sq ft arranged over basement, ground and four upper floors.

The building currently benefits from Class 1 (Retail) consent but offers substantial scope for redevelopment including hotel and office use, student accommodation and private residential.

Comprising open plan retail space on the basement, ground, first and second floors, the property benefits from elevator access between levels with separate customer and service lifts. The third and fourth floors were previously used as staff and storage areas and are arranged on an open plan basis. Floor to ceiling windows provide excellent natural light to the four upper floors.

Positioned at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Cambridge Street, the site benefits from high levels of footfall, with automatic slide doors on Sauchiehall Street offering additional access to the main corner entrance. Neighbouring occupiers include Primark, Boots, TK Maxx, Marks & Spencer and Sports Direct.

Revised Picardy Place plans approved by Edinburgh councillors

Revised proposals for the Picardy Place junction in Edinburgh were approved by councillors yesterday following an extended period of consultation.

A special meeting of the transport and environment committee was held to consider the latest design, which incorporates a new landscaped public space for the island site at the centre of the junction.

The updated plans reflected feedback from around 1000 responses to the consultation, which demonstrated a strong desire for improved public realm in the area, as well as further improvements to provision for pedestrians and cyclists.

Members of full council will discuss the financial detail of plans at the next meeting on February 1.

Council approves permanent closure of fire-hit Aberdeen school

Councillors yesterday approved the permanent closure of Cordyce School.

The closure, which will be effective as of April this year, follows a six week public consultation which ended in October 2017. No pupils have been enrolled at the school since August 2017.

The main school building was largely destroyed by fire in November 2017 and will require demolition. At the time of the fire, the school had no pupils on its roll as a result of a transformation in teaching children and young people with mental, emotional and social support.

Under the requirements of Section 15(2A) of the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010, Aberdeen City Council has notified Scottish Ministers of this decision, and there will be a three week period during which stakeholders and members of the public can make representations to Scottish Ministers regarding the planned closure of the school. This representation period will end on Wednesday 14 February 2018.

Councillors also approved recommendations that four other sites be declared as surplus and removed from the Education and Children’s Services property portfolio:

Citizens Theatre revamp receives £1.5m funding boost

The Scottish Government has awarded £1.5 million towards refurbishing the 140-year-old Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.

The category B-listed building is set to undergo major works to improve accessibility, protect its unique Victorian features and create a new studio, rehearsal and learning space as well as a new café and bar.

The total cost of the redevelopment is £19.4m. The Scottish Government’s funding will come from Culture budget and is a Programme for Government commitment. It follows £500,000 of funding from Historic Environment Scotland and £2.5m of Scottish Government Capital Grant Funding already announced. Other funders include Glasgow City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Robertson Trust and a range of other trusts and individuals.

The project, which is part of the Gorbals regeneration programme, is scheduled for completion in 2020.

First phase of the Dunbeg Masterplan set to begin

The first phase of the Dunbeg Masterplan will begin next week, with improvements works on Kirk Road scheduled to start on Monday.

The road upgrade is part of the Dunbeg Corridor Strategic Masterplan, which sets out ambitious plans for sites between Dunbeg and Ganavan.

The Masterplan is part of the Argyll and Bute Council Local Development Plan, which outlines major infrastructure proposals for Argyll and Bute for the next five years.

As well as the road improvements, the masterplan includes 600 new homes, retail and commercial development, green spaces, playparks and landscaping.

A total of 300 homes will be built in subsequent phases of work over the next six years subject to full planning consent being given. The majority of these houses will be affordable including barrier free homes and homes for single occupiers.

Further £1.5m to be invested in Highland road resurfacing projects

A further £1.5 million is to be invested in road resurfacing schemes across the Highlands, it has been announced.

Transport Scotland has provided the extra funding to BEAR Scotland on top of previous projects that were already planned for 2018.

The financial boost will allow a more permanent solution to temporary pothole repairs that have been carried out at locations where the defects have been deemed most urgent. A key focus for the repairs is the A82, A83 and the A85 which has seen deterioration of the road surface in a number of locations.

The acceleration of works requires planning on matters such as designs, network availability, quarry location, timings and resource/programme conflicts. Any schemes which cannot be delivered this financial year will be delivered early in 2018/19.

New chief officer management structure unveiled at South Ayrshire Council

South Ayrshire Council has announced a new depute chief executive and director – people, and director – place as the first appointments to its new chief officer management structure.

The local authority said the appointments mark the next steps to putting people and places at the heart of everything it does.

New depute chief executive and director – people Douglas Hutchison will have responsibility for culture, sports and leisure; community engagement; community learning and development; community safety; corporate and community planning and improvement; housing policy and strategy; internal audit; learning and raising standards; outdoor education and physical activities; school staffing and administration; school resources and children and young people’s services; and public affairs.

As new director – place, Donald Gillies will be responsible for asset management (including community asset transfer); capital programme; corporate procurement; economic development; facilities management; housing development; housing management; neighbourhood services; planning; building control; professional design services; property maintenance.

David Burns and Mike Newall have also been appointed as executive managers to support the directors.

Two more executive managers and a head of regulatory services will also be appointed in the coming weeks, following a recruitment exercise.

Rise in number of registered new homes in Scotland

New figures have revealed a rise in the number of new homes registered in Scotland last year.

The latest statistics from the National House Building Council (NHBC) state 12,785 new homes were registered to be built in the country in 2017, compared with 11,574 in 2016.

Elsewhere across the UK, there was a 6% rise in the number of registered homes last year (160,606) than compared with 2016 (152,017).

The private sector grew by 3% with 118,825 new homes registered, while the ‘affordable’ sector rose by 14% to 41,781 – the highest yearly total for the sector since NHBC electronic records began 30 years ago. New homes completions were also up 4% from 141,685 to 147,278.

Public sector propels office take-up in Glasgow in 2017

New figures have revealed almost half of all transactions for office space in Glasgow in 2017 was by the public sector, following two major Government Property Unit deals at the end of the year.

GVA’s latest Big Nine report shows that in the final quarter of 2017, which was the busiest of the year for Glasgow, both the Department of Work and Pensions and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service took circa 80,000 sq. ft. each at Atlantic Quay. This meant 45% of activity in the city came from the public sector, with a further 45% from professional and financial service sectors.

Across the Central Belt, Edinburgh enjoyed its busiest year of office activity since 2004, with over 800,000 sq. ft. of space transacted in the city centre in 2017. Combined with out of town there was over 1mn sq. ft. in deals throughout the year. This record take-up in the capital was buoyed by a number of large deals for professional services and financial firms such as Aberdeen Standard, State Street and Royal London.

AECOM to carry out transport connectivity study in Fort William

AECOM has been appointed to carry out a study into improving transport connectivity near Fort William in the Highlands.

The consultancy has started work to identify opportunities for strategic multi-modal transport improvements to support local and nationally significant economic developments within the area. The scope of the work includes, railway, marine and active travel infrastructure.

A draft pre-appraisal report is scheduled to be produced by early summer. The study will be project managed and overseen by a steering group which includes representatives of the Highland Council, HITRANS, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and Transport Scotland.

HITRANS, HIE and the council have agreed to jointly fund the study.

FK Lowry delivers £350,000 piling project at Edinburgh Airport

Work on a £350,000 piling project at Edinburgh Airport is now complete.

FK Lowry Piling carried out the seven-week scheme on behalf of BAM Construction.

The project involved the design and installation of almost 500 No. 355mm Sq. Precast Piles with lengths ranging from 10 to 14m for working loads of up to 750kN.

Road works scheduled for A90 at Blackdog

Road works are scheduled to begin this weekend on the A90 near Aberdeen.

The contractor will start carrying out drainage, verge works and road surfacing at the new junction at Blackdog from Friday, 26 January.

Works will be carried out on the following dates:

Contraflows will be in place during each weekend, with work taking place from 8pm each Friday until 6am the following Monday.

Last chance to comment on Perth and Kinross Local Development Plan

The deadline is approaching for people to comment on a proposed plan which provides a framework for development in the Perth and Kinross area.

The representation period for the Proposed Local Development Plan 2 closes on February 2 after which the Plan will be sent to Scottish Ministers.

Since the representation period opened on December 2 there have been ten public information events throughout the Perth and Kinross area along with training sessions for community councils. Events have been well attended and promoted wide ranging discussions.

The public continue to have the opportunity to make representations on the Proposed Plan until February 2 by telling Perth and Kinross Council what they support in the Proposed Plan or what changes they would like to see made.

All representations on the Proposed Plan are being recorded and will be made available to Scottish Minsters. The Ministers will then appoint a Reporter to examine the representations. As a result of the examination the Reporter will then recommend changes to the Proposed Plan.