By Kristy Dorsey
A prime site on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has been put on the market offering 20,000sq ft of office space over four floors.
The site at 179 Canongate has detailed planning consent and is being offered up for sale, on a pre-let agreement or as a turnkey acquisition by developer Summix Capital. In the case of the latter Summix would develop the property to then sell to an occupier upon completion.
The proposed building has been designed by architects 3DReid to complement its historic surroundings, which include the A-listed Canongate Kirk and Tolbooth. It sits adjacent to the 7.5-acre New Waverley development, a mixed-use scheme of residential, hotel, leisure and office space that will be the new home of HMRC in Edinburgh.
“We are incredibly excited to be progressing this project through to the next stage of development,” Summix development director Stuart Black said. “Located at the very heart of Edinburgh, this prime property is in a highly-accessible location with particular provision for co-working.”
Toby Withall, office agency partner at Knight Frank, added: “3DReid has gone to great lengths to create an office building that captures the character of the area, retaining part of the façade while creating a very attractive office space which will be flooded with natural daylight.
“Sustainability is at the heart of the development, with the re-use of existing fabric and inclusion of extensive cycling facilities among other measures.”
READ MORE: Employers urged not to close all offices amid homeworking surge
Since lockdown, there has been much debate about the future of the market for office space, with some predicting that the shift towards home working will become a permanent feature that dampens demand for centralised workplaces. But in an analysis released earlier this month, Knight Frank predicted that the vacancy rate across Edinburgh is unlikely to exceed 8.5 per cent, less than half of that in the aftermath of the 2008/09 financial crisis.
The property consultancy noted that the current vacancy rate in the capital stands at 6.3%, with only 183,000sq ft scheduled for completion in the next 24 months. In 2008, the vacancy rate for Edinburgh offices was at 12.5% with 638,000sq ft in the pipeline, which led to a vacancy rate of 17.5% in 2010.
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