Building Briefs – September 11th

Savills expands Scottish business space agency team

Savills has expanded its Scottish business space agency team with the appointment of Mike Irvine and Hugh Rutherford as directors in the firm’s Edinburgh office, and Colin McGhee as associate director in Glasgow.

All three join from Montagu Evans. With 22 years’ experience in the property sector, Mike was a Partner at Montagu Evans specialising in office agency and development. Hugh, also previously a Partner, has focussed, and will continue to focus on, office agency, development and occupier services, with 36 years working in the business space sector.

Mike and Hugh have been involved in some of Edinburgh’s most significant office developments in recent years to include: Quartermile and New Waverley. At Savills, amongst other instructions, they will be working with M&G/ Qmile Group on the delivery of circa 350,000 sq ft of Grade A offices within a mixed use scheme at Haymarket.

Colin has seven years’ property experience in Glasgow advising landlords, occupiers and developers. At Savills he will be working on some of the most prestigious office schemes in the city including: Fore Partnership’s Cadworks, totalling 94,000 sq ft and the city’s first speculative development in recent years; and 285,000 sq ft of grade A offices at One Central, on behalf of Vanguard Real Estate.

Savills national business space agency team is strategically placed in London and throughout key regional UK markets in order to monitor and track activity to offer informed and insightful strategic advice to landlord, investor, developer and occupier clients. In Scotland, the new joiners will work alongside David Cobban and Ross Sinclair in Savills Glasgow, Simpson Buglass, Dan Smith and Clare Herriot in Savills Aberdeen and Kate Graham in Edinburgh.

Stewart Milne Homes welcomes new development in Glasgow’s South Side

Stewart Milne Homes is adding to its collection of developments in the west of Scotland with the launch of a new community at Oswald Court in Cathcart from Clyde Property’s office in Clarkston.

Located on the former site of St. Oswald’s Secondary School, the new community has been carefully designed to meet the needs of modern living while appealing to buyers at different life stages.

The collection includes 27 two bedroom executive apartments across a range of individual styles. There’s also a range of smaller two bedroom apartments.

A small collection of five bedroom townhouses are also planned for the new community.

Keyline Scotland opens new Aberdeen branch

Civils and drainage solutions provider Keyline has reopened the doors of its branch in Aberdeen.

The branch, which was originally located on Miller Street in Aberdeen’s city centre, can now be found at Unit 9, Cairnrobin Commercial Park, AB12 4SB in Marywell.

The move places the branch just off the new bypass between Balmedie and Bridgend on the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR), allowing for better traffic management and easier access for customers.

Work progresses on £20m pipe installation in Edinburgh

Work is progressing on a £20 million pipe installation project in Edinburgh, with the completion of the first few hundred metres of pipe at the foot of the Pentland Hills near Balerno.

The scheme involves the installation of seven miles of new pipes to deliver clean drinking water to more than 165,000 people in Edinburgh and the Lothians.

When complete, the extended network will also have the capacity to link to other existing and future water supplies across parts of the south of Scotland.

The first sections of pipe being laid measure 500mm in width and each weigh one tonne. The bright blue plastic pipe has a cover on both ends to protect the inside of the pipe and these are only taken off just as the pipes are connected by hand.

A two-way treated water link will be created between Marchbank Water Treatment Works, near Balerno, and Glencorse Water Treatment Works in the coming months.

Construction is mostly taking placing on private land and being carried out by Scottish Water alliance partner Caledonia Water Alliance.

The construction team has worked hard to overcome a number of challenges in the area including the proximity of parts of the site to overhead power cables. Part of the pipe line will also go near a military training area and practise trenches which date back to World War One. A watching brief will be in place during work in these areas to ensure any archaeological remains are located and recorded.

Elsewhere a tunnel crossing will also be dug under the A702 Biggar Road near Hillend to avoid major disruption when work takes place here next year.

Local schools, businesses and residents, as well as community groups are being kept updated on the project. Lorries bringing the pipes to the construction areas are traveling on surrounding roads at quieter times of the day and noise and disruption is being kept to a minimum.

Efforts to bring Aberdeenshire homes back into use discussed

Work being undertaken to bring Aberdeenshire Council properties back into use was discussed at the latest meeting of the local authority’s communities committee.

The matter was raised as part of an update on housing performance highlighting the latest figures for re-let times for homes, and the work taking place to reduce them.

Responding to a question from Cllr Gywneth Petrie about the time taken to re-let empty properties, head of housing Rob Simpson explained that the service was working hard to reduce the number of properties that are currently unsuitable for let – known as ‘void’ properties – in Aberdeenshire

He said the need to ensure properties meet national standards in terms of energy efficiency and other home improvement targets was part of the reason that some homes can’t currently be released for lease.

And for some properties, including some sheltered housing accommodation, a lack of demand in certain areas was contributing to the long re-let times.

Contracts are already in place which are seeing improvements being made to void properties across Aberdeenshire, and discussions are underway with contractors to identify opportunities to reduce the time taken for works to be completed.

In particular, the council is working with manufacturers to improve delivery times for materials such as kitchens and external doors. The service is also working with energy suppliers to see if time can be saved in terms of installing new electricity meters and in the clearance of historic debts.

The rollout of a new system to increase the efficiency of work within in-house repair teams and to reduce the time take to complete the work on void properties is continuing, and a revised sign-up procedure has been developed with stricter timescales regarding new leases.

Mr Simpson said the council’s own housing team was undertaking wall insulation works to support the improvement programme and that a large number of properties have been used to provide temporary accommodation, helping to reduce the impact of the loss of rent from empty properties.

Statistics show that although re-let times fell to an average of 60 days in the first quarter of 2018 across Aberdeenshire the situation is beginning to improve with this figure falling to 49 days during August, and improvements being seen in five out of six of Aberdeenshire’s administrative areas.

Requests for further information on the financial impact of empty properties are to be addressed in a report that will come before communities committee at a future date.