(Joint press release issued by the University of Aberdeen and Roxburgh & Company)
The University of Aberdeen has appointed Edinburgh-based property consultants and development specialists, Roxburgh & Company, to remarket Marischal College. The building now has detailed planning permission for 168,000 sq ft of new top-quality air-conditioned office accommodation, which will be built within the retained A-listed granite facades.
Angus Donaldson, Director of Property Development at the University, said: "The University of Aberdeen is close to receiving planning consent for Marischal College, consisting of two wings of office accommodation divided by a central landscaped open space, capable of combination for a single occupier.
"The buildings have been designed by architects Hugh Martin Partnership with flexibility in mind and can be fully subdivided into suites, as small as 5,000 sq ft."
"The University is not selling the building but is looking to offer a developer a long leasehold interest of 150 years to redevelop the property and it is our intention that the building remains an active part of the city. We will be retaining Mitchell Hall for ceremonial occasions which we intend to refurbish."
Will Hean, Development and Commercial Agency Director at Roxburgh & Company, said: "Although it may seem like a large amount of space for the Aberdeen market, as we have seen in the past with Hill of Rubislaw, large office requirements in Aberdeen only manifest themselves when the space is available and the advantage of Marischal College is that it can accommodate a sizeable headquarters facility. We will be targeting larger national developers with the strong balance sheet necessary to finance a development of this magnitude."
Aberdeen agents FG Burnett have been appointed as sub agents to provide additional local input and identify potential tenants who may take a prelet on all or part of the space. Angus MacCuish, Managing Director of FG Burnett, said: "We are already in discussions with several major tenants within the city who have indicated an interest in the building. There are currently no other development opportunities with planning consent of this size within the city centre."
Will Hean added: "We will be targeting occupiers in the oil industry, the public sector and the professional occupier market. Within the oil industry, better known for occupying large offices out of town, it is worth noting that the last two major deals signed have been in the city centre. Global Santa Fe have taken on Langlands House, the former Texaco Headquarters Building in Huntly Street and more recently, Canadian Natural Resources, another emerging player in the North Sea market, taking Enterprise Oil's former office space at St Magnus House in Market Street."
With the sale of BP's Forties Field, we are seeing further new oil companies like Apache coming into the North Sea market and this can only be good for office demand in the longer term and Aberdeen's economy as a whole.
Many oil companies in Aberdeen, having built facilities in the late 1970's and early 1980's at the start of the oil boom, are now in office accommodation reaching the end of its useful life and will need to relocate. BP has already purchased a site in Dyce on which to build new premises.
Over the past 10 years there have been few large speculative office development schemes built in Aberdeen and these have let quickly. Marishal College will therefore be seen as a major opportunity by larger property developers and also by tenants looking to secure top quality office accommodation in the heart of the city centre.
For further information contact:
Will Hean, Roxburgh and Company, telephone: 0131 624 3700 or email: will@rox.co.uk; or
Angela Begg, University of Aberdeen, telephone: 01224 272960 or email: a.begg@abdn.ac.uk
For further information about Marischal College, visit: www.abdn.ac.uk/central/vcampus/college.hti