Building Briefs – July 10th

Name announced for Aberdeen’s new £333m event venue

The name for Aberdeen’s new £333 million conference, exhibition and entertainment venue has been revealed.

The Event Complex Aberdeen has been selected – with the TECA name to be rolled-out worldwide as the new facility is marketed to a global audience.

TECA is being rolled out by operators and managers SMG Europe as part of a campaign for the new venue, with branding to come soon. The campaign is to assist SMG in marketing the new venue to new national and international customers, and will help by differentiating it from the current venue.

The new venue project is being delivered by Aberdeen City Council in partnership with Henry Boot Developments and includes a new 12,500 capacity arena, 48.000 sqm of exhibition space and conferencing for up to 5,000, as well as two on-site hotels with 350 bedrooms and a further 150 rooms coming shortly after opening. The venue is also extremely environmentally friendly boasting its own energy centre, which will use local renewable resources and advanced technologies to produce an energy eco-system.

TECA will offer a far more flexible and technologically advanced space than the current Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre site, enabling it to compete nationally and internationally for new events as well as broadening the appeal of the north-east to business and leisure visitors from across the globe.

TECA will be operated and managed by SMG, who currently operate over 240 venues worldwide including; Manchester Arena, First Direct Arena in Leeds, Bridgewater Hall, Bonus Arena in Hull and the Metro Radio Arena in Newcastle.

The build project is progressing extremely well, with the complex scheduled to open in 2019.

Nigel Munro, project director at Henry Boot Developments, said: “Construction on this transformational project is progressing well as you can see, even from outside the site. TECA will have great economic benefits including more than 600 jobs during construction and once open attracting millions of pounds of business to the north east economy. We are delighted to be the development partner and an instrumental part of this significant project.”

While TECA will remain the name of the new venue, SMG has various sponsorship opportunities available including naming rights for the venue, which could lead to an evolution of the brand.

Elgin pupil proves to be the ‘Ideal Candidate’ for Robertson

Robertson has crowned its ‘Ideal Candidate’ following an employability programme held at Elgin Academy.

The overall winner was S4 pupil Nathan Urwin, who was presented with his award at an end-of-term assembly by Iain Sutherland, bid director at Robertson.

In total, three pupils from the school were selected to join Robertson at its Elgin-based office for a week of work experience.

The Ideal Candidate programme is part of the strategic partnership between Robertson and Elgin Academy, with applications for the programme more than doubling from the previous year.

Since launching the Ideal Candidate initiative in 2017, Robertson has collaborated with 30 Moray businesses who provided over 180 S4 pupils with the opportunity to attend a mock interview as part of the programme.

The Ideal Candidate workshops prepared students for the world of work and involved a series of sessions focusing on social media, CV writing, interview techniques and presentation skills culminating in three pupils being offered a three-week work placement with the company.

Glasgow office lettings hit record high

The Glasgow office market has continued its strong start to 2018 into the second quarter with a further 330,963 sq ft of office space transactions, bringing the total take-up for the first half of the year 2018 to 593,901 sq ft – 11 per cent above the ten year annual average of 535,000 sq ft.

The figure from commercial property consultancy CBRE Scotland represents the highest six month total ever recorded for Glasgow on a data series that goes back as far as 1992, breaking the previous record of 532,634 sq ft in H1 2007. The market was bolstered by two significant pre-lets – HM Revenue & Customs took 187,205 sq ft at Atlantic Square in Q1 and CBRE secured 110,955 sq ft for Clydesdale Bank at 177 Bothwell Street in Q2.

Glasgow CBD office stock is sitting at 13.8 million sq ft, 1.41 million sq ft of which is available for occupation. Just 32,910 sq ft of this supply is Grade A.

Strong Q2 for Edinburgh office market

Research by commercial property consultancy CBRE Scotland has revealed a strong second quarter for Edinburgh’s office market after a slow start to the year.

Figures show Q2 take-up of 351,916 sq ft - a 150% increase in take-up from Q1 2018, with half yearly take-up amounting to just under half a million sq ft (491,885 sq ft).

The most notable deal of Q2 2018 was asset management firm Baillie Gifford taking over 60,000 sq ft at the newly developed Mint Building in St Andrew Square, with other large lettings including 43,801 sq ft at 11-12 Lochside Place to Diageo and 14,832 sq ft at Atria One to EDP Renewables. The largest deal of the quarter was Edinburgh Palette occupying 109,153 sq ft of space at 525 Ferry Road, albeit on a short-term lease.

Total Edinburgh supply remains at a critically low level at 923,540 sq ft, with this figure dropping even further to 225,231 sq ft for city centre Grade A space. This represents a 30% decrease on the available space from the same period in 2017, which stood at 1.33m sq ft at the end of Q2. City centre Grade A availability now sits at 1.15% of total stock.

2 Semple Street, due ready for occupation at the end of July 2018, will be the next development to complete in Edinburgh city centre, providing 38,648 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation across six floors.

Plans to go on display for Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme

Plans are to go on display for the Laurencekirk Junction Improvement scheme.

Up to £24 million is being invited to create a new grade-separated junction at Laurencekirk, as part of a package of additional investment alongside the Aberdeen City Region Deal.

Residents and road users will have two opportunities over the next two months to view and comment on the preferred option that has been identified for the scheme.

The preferred option exhibitions will take place on 20 July and 24 August from 12 noon to 7pm at The Dickson Memorial Hall on Station Road, Laurencekirk.