BROOMIELAW
Project Value: £450 million Investment Type: Capital Location: Glasgow City Centre Landowner: Scottish Enterprise Timescale: 2024-2030 Status: Pre-planning
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Scottish Enterprise (SE) has recently concluded the successful acquisition of a further 1.58 acres of development land on the Broomielaw in Glasgow. This takes SE’s ownership to just under 5 acres of contiguous development land adjacent to the River Clyde in Glasgow’s International Financial Services District.
SE’s intention is to develop a masterplan for the site over the next 6-9 months as a catalyst for an estimated 1.8m ft2 development comprising office, lab, residential and complimentary leisure uses that will form a new mixed used city centre quarter.
Potential mixed-use public realm
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Scottish Enterprise’s proposals include a world class sustainable mix of office and lab scale up space, residential, and leisure uses. The indicative gross development value is circa £150 million.
A masterplan will be developed to guide the appropriate mix of uses and then later in 2024 SE will begin the process of competitively seeking a development partner. In the interim, SE will also engage with property developers and interested parties who have a contractually agreed end occupier capable of generating economic impact of transformational scale across the wider Glasgow City Region, comparable in scale to the recently completed Barclays Campus development at Buchanan Wharf on the opposite side of the River Clyde.
For the avoidance of doubt, SE will not engage with parties looking to submit unsolicited bids or proposals for alternative forms of development where no end anchor occupier has been identified.
There is no current detailed financial model for the proposed redevelopment.
Broomielaw block plan
Potential mixed-use development, viewed from the River Clyde
STATUS UPDATE
Pre-planning
Site ownership or control is secured
Scottish Enterprise own the complete 4.96 acre site.
Proposed use is identified or permitted in planning
At present there is no planning permission in place. The proposed development will be in line with Glasgow City Council’s new City Centre Strategy 2024-2030, which already shows billions of pounds of further new investment in the pipeline.
The development will also be progressed in line with Glasgow City Council’s forthcoming Tall Buildings policy guidance, which is due to be published by summer 2024.
The project offers a potentially acceptable investment return
The current vision is for a world class, sustainable development with an appropriate mix of uses to optimise commercial viability.
The project is near market and investor-ready
At this time Scottish Enterprise are progressing the development vision for the site and later in 2024 will be completely seeking a development partner for the site, whilst maintaining flexibility to respond to any mobile investment opportunities of transformational scale that may arise.
The project caters for a market with identifiable demand
Earlier in 2024 world-leading business experts fDi Intelligence named Glasgow as Europe’s number one large city for attracting overseas investment.
Glasgow is a recognised knowledge base which ranks in the top 10 in Europe or top 25 globally for the quality of its education and cultural provision. The Glasgow City Region’s universities and colleges generate high levels of industry collaboration, world-leading research, company spin-outs and student satisfaction.
Although office take up in 2023 totalled just under 700,000 ft2, which is below the 10 year average, premium quality space remains undersupplied, with the grade A availability rate at 3.2%. Glasgow’s prime office rent remains unchanged at £39.50 ft2 now 9.7% up on last year (source: Avison Young ‘Big Nine’ Q4 2023 review).
A report by Scottish commercial property experts Ryden for Invest Glasgow published at the start of 2024 concluded that despite being a leading UK city for research, innovation and start ups the lack of available lab accommodation was constraining further growth. Unlocking investment in lab space provision is a constraint to regional economic growth that Scottish Enterprise and key Glasgow City Region stakeholders are particularly keen to work with the commercial property development and investment industry to address.
Glasgow is currently the leading city for BTR in Scotland with the largest pipeline and the greatest number of approved or under construction units. With a target of doubling the city centre population to 40,000 by 2035, Glasgow is interested to work with investors and developers who can deliver more affordable, accessible, safe and sustainable homes.
MORE INFORMATION
Garry Williamson
Scottish Enterprise email: garry.williamson@scotent.co.uk
