£8.35 million to support urban regeneration in centre of Glasgow

Scottish Government - Housing Minister Kevin Stewart today announced investment of £8.35 million from its SPRUCE fund to support the refurbishment of vacant office space in central Glasgow.

It’s a move that will deliver around 71,000 ft2 of much needed new high quality Grade “A” office space for the city as well as create and support hundreds of new jobs.

With total investment expected be around £16.4 million, Tarn Crag Limited (TCL), a subsidiary of commercial property investor Praxis, will refurbish Dalmore House, a landmark building on St Vincent Street. It is expected the refurbished office space will be able to accommodate more than 500 workers.

Construction works have now commenced with the offices due to be ready for lease by October this year.

Kevin Stewart, Minister for Housing said:

“Glasgow has a shortage of high quality office space and this latest investment will increase the city’s stock, making it an even more appealing proposition to locate and do business in.

“The fact that it will support 196 new jobs in construction plus training and apprenticeship places in the city is very welcome news. This is exactly why we have provided additional support for SPRUCE, allowing it to continue to invest in this sort of regeneration project, and helping our urban areas flourish and ultimately support the communities which sustain them. SPRUCE funding can now be accessed for projects right across Scotland and we hope to see further investments during 2017. ”

Gary Roberts, Managing Director at Praxis said:

“We are extremely pleased to have reached agreement with SPRUCE and Chenavari who have also provided investment to deliver this refurbishment in partnership with us and are delighted that both have bought into our vision for the property. Their involvement further bolsters the first class team that we have assembled to deliver the project.”

Background

SPRUCE (Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres) is a £50 million fund that offers loans and equity investments to revenue generating infrastructure and energy efficiency projects which support regeneration outcomes in Scotland. Funding for the Dalmore transaction has come from an additional £15 million injected into SPRUCE by the Scottish Government in the form of 2016/17 Financial Transactions Capital.

Dalmore House is a 26 years old, 70,000 ft2 landmark building on 310 St Vincent Street, Glasgow. TCL will comprehensively refurbish the building to a modern Grade “A” EPC “B” standard over a six month period, with the lettable area being expanded to c71,000 ft2 .

TCL is a 100% subsidiary of Praxis, a UK based commercial property market investor. SPRUCE will be the senior lender to TCL for Dalmore. Further funding has been provided to TCL by AREO S.à.r.l. (“AREO”), a private limited liability company managed by London-based Chenavari Investment Managers (“Chenavari”).

Source: Scottish Government