27th Feb 2007 - Major Development at Eurocentral Signals New Beginning for Chunghwa Building
A new £300 million development at Scotland's largest mixed use business park is likely to create in excess of 5,000 new jobs in what will be the largest project of its type north of the border.
North Lanarkshire Council has approved an amendment to the Masterplan at Eurocentral which includes the demolition of the former Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) site at the M8 complex and the construction of an Enterprise Park comprising:
• 10 new office buildings,
• Four new warehousing/manufacturing units,
• A range of ancillary developments including restaurants, crèche and gym facilities
Project development coordinators, Tritax Assets Ltd, say the ambitious development, located close to the business park's award winning Dakota Hotel, is scheduled to begin on site in Q3 this year.
Tritax Director, Ian Ross, said the scale of the development would make it the largest speculative business space project ever undertaken in Scotland and one of the largest of its kind in the UK.
However he felt scale was not the key driver in this instance.
"When we purchased the former CPT facility in 2003 we identified the opportunity to make the transition from a redundant single user site to a vibrant mixed use Park," he added.
"We have been listening to the views of prospective occupiers who say that whilst the financial incentive packages (which arise from the status of Eurocentral as a former Enterprise Zone site) are highly competitive, they want to move into an environment which is of the highest quality and offers an attractive environment for staff and visitors alike.
"Eurocentral has a fantastic position with great access to the M8/A8. Our development proposals, which include commencing work on all the infrastructure, landscaping and ancillary facilities from day one - when this might usually take a decade or more -
capitalise on these key attributes and create a platform for significant job creation in North Lanarkshire".
With 732,000 sq.ft (68,000 sq.m.) of office buildings and 244,000 sq.ft. (22,691 sq.m.) of warehouse/manufacturing space, the development will push the figures of space available at Eurocentral to new levels and complement the site's success story which saw some 411,000 sq.ft of space let and 218,600 sq.ft. of new build completed during 2006.
Douglas Smith of CB Richard Ellis, who has been advising Tritax, commented "When Enterprise Zones were first created 25 years ago it was the clear intention of Government that the benefits they conveyed would be directed towards delivering highly incentivised occupational terms.
"The scale of development proposed by Tritax not only addresses issues of environmental quality, but also captures a large element of the EZ benefits so that these can go to occupiers in the form of significant benefits via rent free periods or incentive packages. Not only is that good news for local Scottish businesses but will be a major benefit when Scotland is competing for mobile inward investment projects".
Ends February 25th, 2007
Issued by Charlie Mann, Director, Weber Shandwick. Tel. 0141 333 0557 (office) or 07770 886926 (mobile). E-mail: cmann@webershandwick.com
Note to Editors:
Eurocentral is one of Scotland's key commercial developments extending over an area of 650 acres. A high profile location on the M8 in Lanarkshire offering excellent distribution and commuter routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the M74 and M80, Eurocentral provides a unique mix of position and space, where warehousing / distribution, manufacturing and business users can work together.
Tritax is a market leader in packaging and promoting commercial property investments to private high net worth individuals via the Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) network.
It is active in both the mainstream commercial property market and in the specialist area of tax efficient property investments.
Tritax and its directors have invested funds of over £1.5bn in property unit trusts, limited partnerships and syndicates involving over 100 office, retail, hotel and industrial properties amounting to over 4.5 million sq ft.
In addition, Tritax, together with joint venture partners, controls three large UK business park developments with an estimated development value of over £500 million. Major investment schemes include the investment in Brindleyplace, a mixed use portfolio in Birmingham, and a recent development in South Yorkshire for Next Plc creating one of the largest single distribution centres in the UK providing more than 1.85 million sq ft of usable space.
Tritax is committed to delivering quality, secure property investments with the objective of attaining out performance for its investors. To attain these objectives, Tritax Securities Ltd has also just announced its Tritax Polska No.1 Fund Ltd, a fund investing exclusively into special investment and development opportunities in Poland, Europe's fastest expanding economy.
Organisations involved in the development of Eurocentral include: Tritax Assets Ltd, Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire, Royal Bank of Scotland and AMEC.
For more information on Eurocentral please visit www.eurocentral.co.uk or contact Morag Lyons, marketing executive, Eurocentral Partnership Ltd on 01698 831 259.
For more information regarding the Tritax Eurocentral EZ Unit Trust please visit www.tritax.co.uk or contact the marketing department in the Bedford office on 01234 720 188.
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