BP is planning a new HQ in Aberdeen and will sell its existing exploration facility.
The oil giant’s decision will scotch rumours that it is planning to quit Aberdeen altogether, following hundreds of job cuts in the Scottish city over the past few years.
Aberdeen’s largest private-sector employer wants to downsize from its outdated 577,000 sq ft office and industrial buildings at Dyce to a £40m bespoke 172,000 sq ft office development.
The deal will still be Scotland’s second-largest for five years.
BP will move its entire 1,100-strong workforce out of the 1970s complex of four office buildings totalling 357,000 sq ft, of which it now occupies just 250,000 sq ft, plus a redundant 220,000 sq ft industrial park, into a new bespoke scheme, for which it will take a prelet.
BP will appoint a preferred developer following a design competition to build the scheme on either 29 acres of developable land at its existing facility, or on a site within a two-mile radius.
BP will sell the existing facility as well as the development land to raise funds for the scheme.
David Davidson, partner at Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, which is advising, said: “BP wants to make a long-term commitment to a new building.”
References: EGi News 10/05/04
