By Scott Wright
INVESTMENT giant Baillie Gifford has handed a major vote of confidence to the Edinburgh office market by agreeing terms on a giant new home in the city.
The fund manager, renowned for its long-term approach to investing, has struck a pre-let deal to lease 280,000 square feet of Grade A accommodation at the £350 million Haymarket Edinburgh development.
It will relocate to the property in the latter part of 2023, when it will bring its 1,200 staff, currently based in Edinburgh at its offices at Carlton Square and the Cube next door, together under one roof.
The agreement is the first pre-let deal to be secured by M&G Real Estate and property development partner Qmile Group for the Haymarket project, where construction work recently restated following lockdown. Designed by the renowned Foster + Partners, it will provide more than 380,000 sq ft of prime space over seven storeys.
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Andrew Telfer, joint senior partner at Baillie Gifford, said: “This new office is a significant long-term investment for Baillie Gifford, demonstrating our confidence in the future. It will bring all our Edinburgh colleagues under one roof again, in a more flexible and dynamic working environment. This will help to support our staff and clients around the world, whilst providing space for further growth.”
Paul Curran of Edinburgh-based Qmile Group said: “Securing Baillie Gifford as Haymarket Edinburgh’s first office occupier shows the continued confidence in Edinburgh’s commercial property market, and in high-quality, well-designed workplaces. Haymarket Edinburgh is without doubt a high-profile development and represents the total regeneration of a site which has been derelict for more than 52 years.
“To attract an occupier of the size and stature of Baillie Gifford at such an early stage in the development of the site is hugely exciting.”
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