RBS and Ediston Real Estate have agreed the forward sale of a £38m mixed-use scheme in Edinburgh, kick-starting the development of a long-stalled 8.5-acre site.
The brownfield site, on Chesser Avenue, has consent for almost 60,000 sq ft of shops and 114 new homes.
BP Pension Fund has agreed to forward fund the retail element – Edinburgh West retail park – which will include five shops and three kiosks ranging from 1,000 to 16,900 sq ft.
Three of the shops have already been prelet to Marks & Spencer, Home Bargains and Aldi.
Chesser Developments, a special-purpose vehicle run by New City Vision owner and former Miller Developments managing director Harry O’Donnell, is buying the residential element, some 70% of which must be affordable. Scottish Futures Trust is funding the 114 homes.
Construction is expected to start imminently.
The sale comes as RBS accelerates the winding down of West Register, its buyer of last resort for properties that had been financed by the bank where the loans had been called in.
Ediston, which has worked with the bank on several joint ventures, is RBS’s development partner on the scheme.
The site was previously owned by Applecross and Blackrock International Land, prior to the former’s collapse in 2009.
James Rowney, head of real estate asset management (GB) at RBS, said: “These agreements mark a successful conclusion to RBS’s involvement in this project and effectively allow us to bring this prominently situated brownfield site in Edinburgh back to life.”
