Interserve Signs Joint Venture Deal with Tiger Developments to Build $300 Million Mixed-Use Project in Edinburgh

By Gabriel Circiog, Associate Editor

Edinburgh, Scotland—Britain’s Interserve Plc has signed a joint venture deal with Scottish landowner Tiger Developments to construct and invest in the Haymarket area of Edinburgh. Interserve will initially invest £10.5 million (around $15.86 million) in the mixed-use development project with the £150 million (approximately $227 million) follow-on construction works value being undertaken by Interserve Construction.

The £200 million ($302 million) development will offer a mix of high-quality commercial offices, retail units, leisure use, hotel accommodation and underground parking. Talking about the new joint venture, Adrian Ringrose, CEO of Interserve, said: “Edinburgh’s Haymarket site remains one of the best city center developments schemes to be found anywhere in the UK. It will provide a strategic gateway for the city center, linking seamlessly with one of Scotland’s busiest railway stations, as well as being adjacent to the city’s new tram network.”

The Haymarket site is one of the biggest gap sites in the city center and detailed planning approval has been granted in March 2011 after consultation with the local community and city business leaders. With full planning already obtained for the site, tenants have already signed on for the initial phase of the development. These include Tesco and serviced apartments provider Staycity. For the second phase of the development food chains Prezzo and Pret A Manger have committed and the venture company is in advanced talks with other occupiers for another 70,000 square feet of retail and office space. The project has the potential to create 3,500 jobs and Simon Fox, development director with Tiger, said: “So far we have received significant commercial interest in the site from a wide range of UK operators, on top of the existing tenants already signed up. We are now looking forward to working closely with our development partners Interserve to finally give the Haymarket area the high quality of mixed-use development which it so richly deserves, providing a critical balance to the overall development of Edinburgh’s city center.”