05/11/2007
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.
