April 2008

New Tenant for City Quay

Bell Lawrie moves Dundee operation to 4,000 sq ft office in Shed 26, City Quay

With the announcement that another of Dundee's top companies has moved into City Quay, the company behind the regeneration of this historic part of the waterfront predicts a bright future for Dundee's growing city centre.

The latest tenant to move into City Quay is Bell Lawrie, the leading private client investment manager, which has let 4,000 sq ft in Shed 26.

Tim Allan, of Unicorn Property Group said: "City Quay has been developed, refurbished and successfully let or sold nearly all the commercial space - or what amounts to a new commercial quarter of Dundee's city centre, set in the dramatic old buildings built by the Victorians as maritime sheds.

"The company backed a vision for the city: an enlarged city centre, with top class commercial and residential accommodation, built in a new quarter of the city which is a link to the city's proud maritime history. We are pleased that firms of the calibre of Bell Lawrie share that vision."

Bell Lawrie, who has seven offices in Scotland, employ 21 staff in Dundee, including investment managers, financial services consultants and administrative staff, will move the entire operation to City Quay.

Ian MacDonald, Division Director of Bell Lawrie in Dundee, said: "We are delighted to secure this excellent new office space at City Quay. This investment signals our confidence that our company will continue to grow in years to come as we look to strengthen our client offering throughout Tayside.”

Letting agent, Andrew Dandie of Graham + Sibbald, which acted for Unicorn said: "The commercial success of City Quay – and the number of enquiries we are getting for DundeeOne – is great news for Dundee. Unicorn is developing a genuinely visionary plan for the historic Docks and the company's plans and buildings are recognised as an important part of the city's ongoing regeneration."

City Quay was acquired by Unicorn Property Group in 2005, and the company has developed Shed 26 and 27 into top quality commercial accommodation. There are 12 new Units (numbered 27 - 38) at City Quay, which to date have been purchased or leased by a series of well known professional companies.
ENDS.

For further information please contact: Nick Ball, Five Square Property Marketing (t: 0131-466 0870 | m: 07917-860005 | e: nb@5sq.co.uk)

Link: http://www.unicornpropertygroup.com

April 2008

ENET opens City Quay to new business in Tayside

Business Gateway operator Enterprise North East Trust lets Units 27–29 at City Quay

One of the largest providers of purpose built offices and meeting spaces for small businesses in the North East of Scotland is the latest company to move into City Quay, on Dundee’s Waterfront.

Enterprise North East Trust (ENET) delivers the Business Gateway service in Tayside and Grampian and the private company has signed leases to occupy Units 27-29, a total of around 6,000 sq ft.

The move means that many of Dundee and Tayside’s younger and smaller businesses will be able to use and enjoy the stunning meeting and conference rooms at City Quay.

Karen Pugh, Director of Enterprise North East Trust, said: “The City Quay development gave us the opportunity to design the internal space to create the flexible working environment that we needed. ENET has created a meeting and training room suite for the delivery of Business Gateway, office space for our Business Advisors and support team and Quayside Conference Centre which has three conference rooms that are available for hire on an hourly, half day or full day basis. The Conference Centre has all the facilities, services and equipment you need to organise a meeting or conference as well as a dedicated reception and support service and a luxurious breakout and refreshment area.”

Tim Allan, director of Unicorn Property Group, which renovated and let the property, said: “City Quay is truly a dynamic quarter of the city of Dundee, for living and for business. Alongside the outstanding living offered by Unicorn’s residential developments, we are proud that so many companies are moving into this first rate commercial accommodation on the city’s historic waterfront.”

Andrew Dandie, partner in Graham + Sibbald, which acted for Unicorn Property Group said: “The letting of three units to ENET further underlines that the City Quay area of Dundee is the most dynamic business district in the City, with ENET joining other occupiers such as SMC Parr and EQ Chartered Accountants. Demand has been such that we will soon have successfully let or sold all the available units. Such is the success of the area that the future looks prosperous for Unicorn’s DundeeOne office development for which I am receiving a steady number of initial enquiries.”

City Quay is a development of Victorian maritime sheds which offer excellent parking and panoramic views over the River Tay in a fully modernised and specified accommodation, set in an historic riverside context.

Tim Allan commented: “Unicorn’s vision for City Quay was to preserve and celebrate the heritage of this area of the city centre – which played such an important part in Dundee’s commercial past – by bringing it up to date and turning it into a new, vibrant quarter of the city, linking the city to the River Tay.”

City Quay was acquired by Unicorn Property Group in 2005, and the company has developed Shed 26 and 27 into top quality commercial accommodation. There are 12 new Units (numbered 27 - 38) at City Quay.

Link:  http://www.unicornpropertygroup.com

12 MARCH 2008

WATERFRONT ANNOUNCEMENT

THE DEVELOPMENT brief for a prominent site on Dundee's waterfront will be issued soon, following a decision by the Dundee Central Waterfront Project Board.

Dundee City Council's representatives at the world's largest property market, currently being held in France, announced the move yesterday (WEDNESDAY).

Convener of Dundee City Council's economic development committee, Joe Morrow said: "Land at Yeaman Shore, which is currently being used as a temporary car park, will become available soon and we will be encouraging developers to bring forward their proposals for the site.

"Its communications links couldn't be better sitting as it does on the inner ring road and just a few metres from Dundee railway station."

The announcement comes in the wake of news that a local computer games development studio which works on titles for platforms including PS3, XBox and Wii has moved into new premises at Seabraes Yard.

Proper Games joins other tenants at the property which was designed for digital media and creative industries.

A leading hotel chain is also close to signing a deal to lease a new building to be constructed on land adjacent to the inner ring road to the south of Nethergate.

Cllr Morrow added: "With the waterfront redevelopment planned to span the next 25 years, there will be periods such as this when there are flurries of activity involving smaller parcels of land, times when it seems nothing is happening or major announcements featuring world class developments.

"That is the nature of such a long term redevelopment, and shows the hard work that is constantly going on to market the waterfront in a way that will meet our vision for what is a very special area of the city."

7 MARCH 2008

WORLD'S LARGEST PROPERTY MARKET

REPRESENTATIVES of Dundee City Council will be at the world's largest property market next week, to help highlight the potential of the city's waterfront.

MIPIM brings together key players in real estate, investors, developers, architects, hotel chains and public bodies for a four day business exchange.

Convener of Dundee City Council's economic development committee, Joe Morrow said: "Dundee has been recognised as one of the top 30 European cities of the future in a Financial Times magazine, legitimising our representation at MIPIM.

"That very high placing, beating cities including Liverpool, Munich, Zurich and Prague, took into account many elements including economic potential, business friendliness, quality of life, human resources, costs, infrastructure and existing foreign direct investment.

"The fact that Dundee's waterfront is regarded as a world-class environment for developments of many kinds also means that it is only right that we take that message to these major businesses in the global property market."

Last year at its 18th annual exhibition, MIPIM welcomed 26,210 professionals from the real estate sector representing 83 countries, and organisers are hoping to better that total this time round.

The Dundee exhibition, which will be part of a larger Scotland stand, backed by the Scottish Government, will show a custom-designed animated "fly through" of the waterfront, highlighting its potential to investors and developers.

A special brochure and other marketing materials will also be distributed by the two-strong Dundee team at the event in Cannes.

01/11/2007

Dundee's Number One
The economic resurgence of the city of Dundee continues today with the announcement of the name of the city's largest speculative office development in a generation.

DundeeOne at City Quay will provide in excess of 100,000 square foot of Grade A office space, built by Unicorn Property Group, the lead company behind the successful residential development on the city's waterfront.

The two buildings, City Court and River Court represent an initial investment of £18m and will provide high quality office space for the employment of almost 1000 people, typically in the financial, professional and public sectors.

Work will start on the development at the end of 2007 and the finished buildings, which will be completed in January 2009, will massively increase GRADE A office capacity in the city, which is currently in very short supply.

Tim Allan, director of Unicorn Property Group, "Dundee is a fantastic city with a high quality, well educated workforce readily available for any investor. The city’s growing reputation and fantastic quality of life is being widely recognised across the world, by organisations in the US in Europe and in the Middle East. Until now, we have as a city suffered from a lack of readily available new office space. Thus DundeeOne will meet that need. It's the right time to embark on this kind of speculative development matching the ambition, aspiration and enterprising spirit of the City”.

"Dundee has worked hard in recent years, with a lead from the council, to bring in economic opportunity from across the business world. A building of the size and ambition of Dundee One will show the world that Dundee is not just open for business, but that it is open to more business.”

Dundee One will be marketed by Montagu Evans and Graham & Sibbald. Hugh Rutherford, Partner in Charge of Business Space, Montagu Evans, Scotland, said: “The arguments for Dundee as an ideal destination for investment and relocation are compelling and tenants are beginning to appreciate the deep resources offered by the City. As a property agent, you always seek to provide locations that offer a ready supply of highly skilled staff, a good quality of life and a fantastic building. DundeeOne offers all these. In addition, its location is unique, on the banks of a great river, in the middle of a City next to all the transport connections you could want. “

Andrew Dandie, Partner in Graham & Sibbald’s Dundee office said: “The world is waking up to the potential of Dundee and its ambitious view of the future. With two universities, world class teaching hospital and the Wellcome Trust’s research centres, Dundee is seeing a boom in the knowledge and hi tech economies. DundeeOne will offer the kind of high quality space to meet the needs of this rapidly expanding sector all in a unique location. We expect demand to be high for what is the most highly specified office investment in the last 30 years.”

DundeeOne has been designed by Comprehensive Design Architects of Edinburgh, winners of the British Council for Offices Award in 2006 for their design of Skyways House, the Littlewoods headquarters in Merseyside, and designers of the new Scotsman building in Edinburgh.

Every effort has been made to balance the functionality and contemporary design of DundeeOne with the needs of the environment. To that end, DundeeOne is aiming at the highest energy efficiency and environmental sustainability rating ever – BREEAM Excellent - in the Angus and Tayside area. In addition, the development is committed to equal opportunities and access so will be readily compliant with current Disability Access legislation.

Full information can be found at www.dundeeone.com (which will go live on Thursday 1st Nov 2007)

Further Information

Tim Allan Unicorn Property Group 01382-224 555
Hugh Rutherford Montagu Evans LLP 0131-229 3800
Andrew Dandie Graham & Sibbald 01382-200064
For Pictures or to arrange interviews, please call Janine Sproule, Five
Square Property Marketing 0131-308 7206 or mobile 07731 302 960

Background Information
• Dundee One will be available in two buildings: City and River Courts
• Each building has 5 lettable floors
• Total net lettable space is 100,000 sqft
• Whole Floorplates range in size from 8,300 sq ft to 10,900 sq ft
• Suites available from 2,000 sqft
• Planning consent was gained at planning committee on 20th August 2007
• Excellent BREEAM rating (targeted)

22/03/2007
Waterfront Time Travel
PEDESTRIANS using a Dundee street are being invited to travel through time to chart the past, present and future of the city's waterfront area.

The journey, guided by a 36 metre (125 ft) long hoarding, tells the story of the city's relationship with the River Tay from the 18th century to the radical transformation planned for the next three decades.

Joe Morrow, convener of Dundee City Council's economic development committee and chairman of the Dundee waterfront board, and Mike Galloway, the city's director of planning and transportation unveiled the epic journey today (THURSDAY) which screens works going on under the Tay Road Bridge off ramp in Dock Street

Cllr Morrrow said: "Dundee has had a long and fruitful relationship with the river and the harbour area created to link the two, but for too long now the city and its people have been isolated from parts of the waterfront.

"The plans which feature on these boards show how we propose to re-establish that link for the benefit of Dundonians and visitors."

As well as showing drawings, pictures and artists' impressions of the waterfront masterplan, the hoardings direct passers-by to a new website, www.dundeewaterfront.com , which details the extensive changes needed to make the vision a reality.

These include extending the city centre's built environment down to the waterfront, partly by creating a new grid street pattern based on historical routes; the removal and replacement of some of the Tay Road Bridge on and off-ramps; the creation of a major new civic space and re-opened dock stretching from the Caird Hall to the river and ultimately the provision of a new rail station.

The 30-year masterplan was conceived in 1998 and since then Dundee City Council along with its partners, has been putting funding in place to start the massive changes, as well as carrying out preparation works. Among the changes Dundonians have already seen are re-alignment of part of Marketgait, which is enabling new development and on-going strengthening works for the Dock Street rail tunnel. It is hoped that this stage will be completed in November. Postcards containing information about the waterfront plans, and the new website address, have been distributed to hotels in the city, as well as the airport, rail station and visitor attractions.

The Dundee and Angus Convention Bureau will also include one in every pack they provide to delegates attending conferences in the city in the coming months, and property developers building homes at nearby City Quay will use them in their promotional material.

More than 8,000 businesses in the city have also been briefed on the plans via Dundee City Council's magazine, Investment News, the latest edition of which focused entirely on the waterfront. An additional 35,000 copies of Investment News were also distributed earlier this month via one of the UK's leading property magazines, Estates Gazette.

22/01/2007
Closure of Olympia Walkway North Ramp

The ramp from the car park area of Tayside House to the Olympia walkway will be closed from Wednesday (January 24) as part of the Dock Street rail tunnel work. Access to the walkway from 5.45am to 10.15pm weekdays and 8.45am to 6.15pm at weekends will be via the escalators and lifts at Tayside House. Pedestrians should use the crossing near the Tay Hotel outwith these times and this is also the route for cyclists. Alternative access route map available to download.

22/06/2006
Major development deal announced for Dundee's Creative Media District

Details of a deal to build a second development at Dundee's creative media district Seabraes Yards have been revealed by site owners Scottish Enterprise Tayside.

Work will start this month on a four-storey, 28,000sq foot building which will be able to accommodate around 300 staff.

Scottish Enterprise Tayside has agreed the development deal for the one-acre site at the entrance to the project with Tayside Developments Ltd, part of the Foxdown Properties group.

The high-quality office building will be the first new-build development in Seabraes Yards, which is on a brownfield site in the heart of Dundee, and aimed at developing the digital media sector in Tayside. The development of the gateway site between the Sensation building and Vision@Seabraes, is being seen as a key part of the project.

The new building will have two wings either side of a central core and be constructed in line with the design masterplan for Seabraes Yards. It will be based on a structural steel frame, with high quality cladding materials including feature terracotta rain screen cladding. The accommodation within the building will be flexible and be able to house both small and large space users.

Marketing of the development to companies in the creative industries sector - one of six key sectors identified by Scottish Enterprise as vital to economic growth - will be carried out by Scottish Enterprise nationally and internationally and the developer has appointed Graham & Sibbald's Dundee office as letting agent.

Nick Day, competitive place director at Scottish Enterprise Tayside, said: "This is a significant deal in one of Tayside's most high-profile and important investment projects. More than 2,000 people are employed in the thriving creative media sector in Dundee and this will drive further growth.

"The building will house a number of creative industry companies and complement Vision@Seabraes by attracting new talent and further investment to the area as well as supporting indigenous companies."

Rod Brown, director of Foxdown Properties Ltd, said: "The building is due to be completed next Spring by the main design and build contractor Cameron Harris in association with James Barr Architecture, and is a positive step in the future redevelopment of Seabraes Yards. We anticipate several companies, some of them local, will take advantage of the high quality accommodation which will be provided within the building."

Occupying a 20-acre site on the main western approach to the city, Seabraes Yards was formerly known as Dundee Digital Media Park. The ambitious venture is the result of close collaboration between SE Tayside, the European Union and private and public sector organisations and is projected to result in £50million being injected into the area over the next 10 years.

Contact: Gary Grant, SE Tayside
Email: gary.grant@scotent.co.uk
www.seabraesyards.com