M&G Real Estate and property developer partner Qmile Group have agreed pre-lets for 55% of Haymarket One at the £350 million Haymarket Edinburgh development.
Agreements for a further 62,183 sq ft have been signed by oil and gas company Cairn Energy PLC and law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn. The businesses will take 32,722 sq ft and 29,461 sq ft of Grade A office space respectively.
These deals follow the pre-letting of 280,000 sq ft of office space in Haymarket Three last July on a 20-year lease to investment partnership Baillie Gifford.
Once complete, Haymarket Edinburgh will comprise 380,000 sq ft of Grade A office space.
Masterplanned by architects Foster + Partners, the development is located at the heart of a major transport hub.
Aaron Pope, director, asset management at M&G Real Estate, said, “As major investors and employers in Edinburgh ourselves, M&G saw an opportunity to regenerate this derelict part of the city, which culminated in the purchase of the site in 2018 on behalf of Prudential’s five million policy holders. As an asset owner and an asset manager, we can finance significant projects and use our asset management experience to deliver ambitious, high-quality projects, which improve communities and provide a sustained income for our customers and clients.”
Paul Curran, chief executive of Edinburgh-based Qmile Group, added, “These latest pre-lets to Cairn Energy and Shepherd and Wedderburn show the continued confidence in Edinburgh’s commercial property market. They also reflect the desire of blue-chip businesses to be in the highest quality, most sustainable office space and surrounding environment which is served by excellent transport links.
“We are scheduled to complete building one in August 2022 and, at that point, we will really see the development come to life and become an integral part of the city centre after being derelict for over 52 years.”