The New Waverley development scooped the top award for the Commercial Project of the Year at the 2017 Herald Property Awards for Scotland, held in Glasgow last week.

The award recognised New Waverley’s successful development of the Adagio Aparthotel overlooking the Royal Mile and The Arches, a row of Victorian arches which has been transformed into a vibrant retail and leisure quarter for the city.

New Waverley is being delivered by Artisan Real Estate Investors, and is owned and funded by MAS REI. The award win further recognises New Waverley’s current status as one of the UK’s most important city centre regeneration projects, taking place in the historic and highly sensitive World Heritage Site of Edinburgh’s Old Town.

Welcoming the award, Clive Wilding, New Waverley’s project director, said: “We are all thrilled that New Waverley has won another major accolade.

“For the last two years, we have worked hard to make New Waverley an integral part of Edinburgh’s Old Town, breathing new life back into a formerly neglected part of the city centre. This award - highlighting our successful completion of both the Adagio Aparthotel and The Arches - shows that our efforts are now paying off and I am delighted that New Waverley’s considerable impact is being recognised on a national stage by our peers and public alike.”

In the last 12 months New Waverley has become an established district within the city’s historic Old Town and has delivered a high profile ‘place-making’ campaign designed to create interest and excitement about the area. This has included launching the UK’s largest poem on the side of the new Adagio Aparthotel building on the Royal Mile, as well as the area hosting food markets, light shows and art installations.

Completed so far as part of the first New Waverley development phase are two Whitbread hotels - a Premier Inn and a Hub by Premier Inn - which opened in January 2016, and The Arches. In December last year the new 146-apartment Adagio Aparthotels on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile opened for business, overlooking a new football pitch-sized public square, becoming the first significant public space to open in the city centre for more than 50 years.

In July, it was announced that some 2,900 civil servants will be located at New Waverley’s next phase office development as part of a new UK government hub.

This is the third major award that New Waverley has won in 2017, having scooped top honours at both this year’s Scottish Property Awards and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Awards.