17.11.2020
LEADING CITIES INVEST purchases the Quartermile 3 office building in Edinburgh
- The building is part of a development project by the international architectural practice Foster + Partner
- It has been awarded a BREAAM “Very Good” rating in the New Construction category certifying environmental performance
The LEADING CITIES INVEST fund has purchased the fully let office building Quartermile 3 in the Scottish capital Edinburgh. The main tenant of the building is State Street, a daughter company of the State Street Corporation, an international company with headquarters in Boston, USA. Founded in 1792, it is a financial services provider and a custodian bank. Quartermile 3, which offers more than 6,800 square meters of space is located at 10 Nightingale Way and was completed as recently as 2018. Its environmental performance was rated “Very Good” in the New Construction category of BREEAM. The property was sold by Prudential Assurance Company Limited. It has been agreed to keep the sales price confidential.
The Quartermile development project, which Quartermile 3 is part of, is located in the southern part of Old Town in immediate proximity to the University of Edinburgh. The Quartermile project, planned by renowned international architectural practice Foster + Partners, includes four office buildings (Quartermile 1-4), 1,050 premium apartments, a Marriott Hotel with 107 rooms, several retail spaces, an extra Campus for the University of Edinburgh and a car parking concept offering more than 900 spaces. The new University of Edinburgh Campus is called Edinburgh Futures Institute and is planning to welcome its first students in the autumn semester of 2021.
Edinburgh’s 2019 population count of 525,100 inhabitants reflects a total population growth of 13,4 percent over the last 10 years. Since 2004 the city has seen an average growth rate of 1 percentage point per year. After the public sector, finance is the second most important pillar of Edinburgh’s economy. Edinburgh is the most important location of the banking and finance industry in Britain after London, with 34,800 people working in banking and insurance alone. Global banks and insurance companies such as the Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Standard Investments and Scottish Widows have their national and international headquarters in Edinburgh.
The second tenant, occupying the entire ground floor of Quartermile 3, is Cirrus Logic International Semiconductor Limited. The company is the leading provider of audio and voice chips for smart phones, wearables, tablets and headsets.
The LEADING CITIES INVEST has a presence in selected future-oriented locations throughout Europe, from Helsinki in Finland to Barcelona in Spain, from Dublin in Ireland to Warsaw in Poland. With the addition of Quartermile 3, the LEADING CITIES INVEST now holds investments in 33 assets in 25 locations across nine countries. Having transformed its energy supply to ensure sustainability, the LEADING CITIES INVEST is able to reduce CO2 emissions by 2.891 per year.