Building Briefs – July 13th

Artisan Real Estate Investors, the partnership behind Edinburgh’s New Waverley development, has welcomed the decision to create a new UK government regional hub for the city in 2020.

The UK government has announced that it will take approximately 190,000 sq. ft. of Grade A office space at New Waverley, moving some 2,900 civil service jobs into the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. This will include HMRC, which will run one of their 13 regional centres from New Waverley.

The new office hub will continue the momentum of New Waverley’s current development phase due for completion later this year, which will see high quality office space blend with restaurants, cafes and shops around a new public square.

Artisan’s £200 million, 7.5 acre mixed-use scheme seamlessly links Waverley Station with the city’s iconic Royal Mile, forming part of the Old Town’s UNESCO World Heritage site. During the last two years, New Waverley has delivered 400 hotel rooms, including two Whitbread hotels – a Premier Inn and a Hub by Premier Inn - and an Adagio Aparthotel overlooking the Royal Mile.

As well as completing 45 affordable homes, New Waverley has also delivered a row of 19 Victorian arches which has been transformed into a new artisan-based leisure café and specialised retail district for the city. Currently under development is a boutique hotel by Apple Apartments, and a further 148 new homes are also planned.

Mixed picture as house price rises slow and new instructions fall

House prices continued to rise in Scotland last month, albeit at a slower rate than the previous quarter, according to the latest RICS UK Residential Market Survey.

At the same time, there was little encouragement for sales activity, with the number of new instructions falling.

Respondents cited a lack of available properties, political uncertainty and the effect of LBTT bands as contributory factors to the slowdown in the market.

Across the UK, 44% of contributors identified domestic political uncertainty as the biggest factor explaining the current state of the market. This compares to 27% who highlighted Brexit as the most important factor influencing the picture.

Gail Hunter, RICS regional director, Scotland, said: “This is a mixed picture for the Scottish residential market, with a slowdown in price rises and a fall in new instructions. However, one consistent message is that the lack of available housing stock is putting pressure on the market by driving up costs and pricing prospective buyers out of the market. More must be done to free up housing stock to ease this inflationary pressure and stimulate housing instructions and sales.”

Hew Edgar, RICS policy manager, Scotland, added: “We predicted a post-election bounceback in residential property transactions, however this has been patchy due to supply-led price pressures and issues in certain sections of the market created by the bandings in LBTT.

“The issues being reported due to the current LBTT bandings must be addressed to tackle the bottleneck being created by those who are put off moving property and are, instead, adopting the ‘improve, don’t move’ mentality. We urge the Scottish Government to review of the LBTT framework and devise a banding and threshold structure that would improve market fluidity, and address the current uncertainty which is stymying property transactions and depressing house buying activity.”

Vue cinema set for Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre

Morisons Solicitors has concluded a deal on behalf of Vue Entertainment which will see a new multiplex open in Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre.

The new nine screen venue will be developed at the site of the former BHS store to the rear of the centre. Representing a multi-million pound investment, the new facility will create a significant number of new full and part-time jobs.

The cinema is scheduled to open in 2019.

The new Vue forms part of a phased redevelopment programme currently underway by St Enoch’s landlords, Blackstone and their Operating Partner, Sovereign Centros, which will include a reconfiguration of the existing mall and the development of a new additional dedicated restaurant area.

Work begins on £31.2m A737 upgrade

Minister for Transport and the Islands Humza Yousaf has today marked the start of a £31.2 million project to construct a bypass at Dalry.

Mr Yousaf was on-site to break ground on the new bypass which will be built to the east of the North Ayrshire town.

The project will involve the construction of a four kilometre bypass as well as two new roundabouts, at Hillend and Highfield, and a viaduct to carry the new road over the River Garnock and the Glasgow to Ayr railway line. Works will also be required to connect the new Bypass to the existing A737 Trunk Road east of Highfield.

Transport Scotland appointed contractor Farrans Roadbridge Joint Venture in May to construct the bypass.

Upon completion the bypass will encourage improved economic and employment opportunities through better journey time reliability for motorists and businesses along the length of the A737. In addition, the Dalry Bypass will help separate local and strategic traffic, leading to improved safety for both rural road users and communities.

Kier completes McNicholas acquisition

Kier has completed the acquisition of civil engineering contractor McNicholas to strengthen its positions in the utilities and infrastructure services sectors.

McNicholas vans and work crews are a familiar site digging up UK streets for utility companies. It is also active in power, water, renewable energy and the rail sector, as well as telecommunications and gas. Clients include Virgin Media, Network Rail and UK Power Networks.

In the year ended 31st March 2016 McNicholas Construction Services generated revenues of £166m, up 18% from the previous year’s £141m, but made a pre-tax loss of £391,000. Operating profit was £176,000, down from £400,000 the previous year.

McNicholas Construction (Holdings) reported turnover of £180m, operating profit of £1.3m and pre-tax profit of £119,000.

Plans lodged to extend Dundee hotel

Proposals to extend a hotel’s function suite and manager annex have been submitted to Dundee City Council.

The Taypark House Hotel, on Perth Road in the city’s West End, submitted the application to planning officers this week.

The proposal would see the hotel extend into its existing courtyard with an emphasis on a reuse of existing materials such as roof tiles and stone bricks.

An accessible guest bedroom for disabled customers would be extended if the plans are approved.

In addition, the hotel’s first-floor function suite would undergo a large-scale renovation and expansion.

An existing stained glass window feature in the suite would also be “carefully” removed and replaced in a new external wall.

Hotel bosses also wish to add another storey to the existing manager annex alongside the hotel.

Aberdeen set for second Costa drive thru

Costa has committed to open its second drive thru outlet in Aberdeen at the junction of Abbotswell Road and Wellington Road early in 2018.

Advised by international real estate advisor Savills, Costa has committed to a new 15-year lease with developer West Coast Estates for a 2,200 sq ft (204 sq m) Drive Thru store.

Glasgow students engineer future careers in construction

Talented engineers of the future have completed an immersive introduction to the industry thanks to a partnership between Robertson Construction and the highly regarded Constructionarium initiative.

23 first year HND civil engineering students from Glasgow Kelvin College spent a week in a live working environment applying their classroom theory to real-life projects as they planned and constructed scaled-down versions of Durham’s Kingsgate Bridge and the Westrigg Windfarm.

The project, carried out at Sibbald’s training centre at Blackridge, West Lothian, saw Robertson work closely with the college to provide ongoing support and mentoring from the firm’s site management, engineers and joiners.

They were also joined on site by Leica Geosystems, who provided an introduction to the structural and engineering equipment available to the students.

Over the course of the week, the group planned, set and worked to budgets, complied with rigorous health and safety and quality standards and presented their completed scaled-down engineering projects to the client.

They also learned new terminology, had the chance to self-manage their own progress and tested their theoretical knowledge in areas including steelwork, formwork and technical drawing.

Sell out success at new Dundee housing site

A new housing development in Dundee, built by Glasgow-based construction company CCG (Scotland) Ltd, has proved to be a sell-out success, with every single property sold in under 10 months.

Families have already started to move into their new homes, and the last remaining properties were bought after members of the public were invited to view the luxurious show home, which was one of 17 contemporary, three and four bedroomed detached and semi-detached energy efficient homes, located at Lochlee Wynd, just off Glamis Road - a quiet, suburban neighbourhood of Dundee.

The development is the latest edition to CCG (Scotland) Ltd’s portfolio of successful developments across central Scotland and continues the company’s tradition of delivering homes effectively and efficiently at an affordable price.

Lochlee Wynd is part of a mixed tenure development that also includes ‘Blackwood House’, a bespoke two-storey block of six flats designed to support flexible living with increased levels of accessibility and integrated communications.

Russell Roof Tiles celebrates ISO-tastic performance

Pitched roofing manufacturer Russell Roof Tiles is ahead of the game when it comes to safety, quality and reliability.

Russells is among a handful of organisations in the roofing sector to have transitioned and upgraded to the new ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 standards. The team at Russell Roof Tiles invested six months in the upgrade when the average requirement is to have the changeover complete within three years.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) develops international standards such as and is an independent, international agency with a membership of 165 national bodies.

Russell Roof Tiles manufactures on three state-of-the-art-plants, in Burton-on-Trent and in Lockerbie. The firm makes a range of concrete roof tiles and fittings for leading UK house builders, social housing and commercial projects and employs a team of 180 across its sites.