The trend among major companies in the global village is to neither sound nor look parochial. To achieve this, many deflect attention from its origin and even the location of its head offices. The belief is that companies should be global in appearance.
While this is good for the individual firms involved, it says nothing about how a region benefits. There are clearly causal benefits in having new buildings in Scotland to attract occupiers, but EG wanted to know the economic benefit to Scotland beyond this.
We identified seven key projects — ongoing or recently completed, public private and design-and-build — to ascertain the level of involvement of Scottish companies. This gives an indication of the total benefit a region enjoys and identifies any obvious skills gaps.
The more local companies are involved in a specific project, the more jobs are retained locally and the more business rates are generated for council coffers. Also, the more affluent the population, the more money is spent on the high streets. Equally, if skills cannot be found locally, perhaps educational institutions should think about providing training to meet the growth needs of the town or city.
Because of the difficulty in gauging the importance of a specific project — given its economic political implications — we have decided to let the evidence speak for itself.
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1 Glasgow Science Centre, Pacific Quay, Glasgow |
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Main Contractor: Carillion (project office: Bellshill, Lanarkshire; HQ: Wolverhampton) |
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Architect: Building Design Partnership (project office: Glasgow; HQ: Manchester) |
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Structural Engineer: WA Fairhurst & Partners (Glasgow) |
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Services Engineer: Cundall Johnston & Partners (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: Newcastle) |
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Quantity Surveyor: Doig & Smith (Glasgow) |
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Project Manager: Turner Townsend Project Management (project office: Glasgow; HQ: Leeds) |
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2 Optima, Robertson Street, Glasgow |
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Developer: Crown Dilmun (project office: Manchester; HQ: London) |
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Funder: Halifax Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh) |
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Main contractor: Miller (Edinburgh) |
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Construction consultants: Gleeds (project office: Glasgow; HQ: Nottingham) |
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Architects: Yeoman McAllister (Edinburgh) |
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Consulting Engineers: Blyth & Blyth (project office: Glasgow; HQ: Edinburgh) |
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M&E Engineers: Waterman Gore (project office: Glasgow; HQ: London) |
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Agents: CBRE (formerly IRE, Glasgow); Ryden (Glasgow) |
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3 Glasgow Fort, Garthamlock, Glasgow |
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Client: Pillar Property (London) |
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Main Contractor: Laing O’Rourke Scotland (project office: Bellshill, Lanarkshire; HQ: Dartford, Kent) |
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Project manager: Applied Solutions (London) |
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Development Consultant: Block Properties (London) |
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Architect: Cooper Cromar (Glasgow) |
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Planning Consultant: Montagu Evans (Glasgow) |
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Quantity Surveyor: Cyril Sweett (project office: Glasgow; HQ: London) |
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Civil Engineer: Mitchell McFarlane & Partners (Sutton, Surrey) |
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M&E Engineer: Wallace Whittle |
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Letting Agents: Montagu Evans |
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4 The Scottish Parliament Building, Holyrood, Edinburgh |
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Main contractor: Bovis Lend Lease (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: Harrow, Middlesex) |
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Construction manager: Bovis Lend Lease |
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Architects: EMBT (Barcelona) and RMJM (Edinburgh) |
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Structural engineers: Arup (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: London) |
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Services engineer: RMJM Services (Edinburgh) |
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Cost consultant: Davis Langdon & Everest (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: London) |
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5 Citymark, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh |
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Developer: Fountainbridge Developments; AB Hamilton (Glasgow) and Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh) joint venture. |
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Main Contractor: Skanska (project office: Glasgow; HQ: Rickmansworth, Herts) |
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Architect: JM Architects (formerly PGMP, Edinburgh) |
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Project manager: Summers-Inman (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: Newcastle) |
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Cost consultants/QS: Summers-Inman |
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Engineer: Goodson Associates (Edinburgh) |
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Agents: Ryden (Edinburgh); Montagu Evans (Edinburgh) |
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6 Harvey Nichols and The Walk, St Andrew Square, Edinburgh |
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Client: LaSalle Investment Management per Coal Pension Properties (Sheffield) |
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Agents: McGregor CS (Edinburgh), CWHB (London), Jones Lang LaSalle (Edinburgh) |
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Project Manager: Cyril Sweett (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: London) |
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Architect: CDA (Edinburgh) |
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Quantity surveyor: CBA (Edinburgh) |
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Structural Engineer: Goodson Associates (Edinburgh) |
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Services Engineer: Graham Mather Associates (Edinburgh) |
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Planning Consultant: Montagu Evans (Edinburgh) |
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Main Contractor: Balfour Beatty Construction (Edinburgh) |
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7 The Pyramids Business Park, Bathgate, West Lothian |
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Developer: Scottish Capital Group (West Linton, West Lothian) |
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Fund: Henderson Global Investors (London) on behalf of Pearl Assurance (Peterborough) |
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Agents: Ryden (Edinburgh), Knight Frank (Edinburgh), City & Wharf (London) |
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Architects: RMJM (Edinburgh) |
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Project manager, QS: Thomas & Adamson (Edinburgh) |
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Service Engineers: Wallace Whittle (project office: Edinburgh; HQ: Glasgow) |
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Main contractor: Thomas Johnson Pat Sceen |
