In what has been described as “a red letter day for Edinburgh“ the city’s ageing St James Centre is to be flattened to make way for a futuristic £850m office and retail complex aimed at stripping Glasgow of its title as Scotland’s shopping capital.
Work on demolishing the 45-year-old St James Centre will start early in 2015 after years of decline and criticism over its “brutalist” architecture. The government office block, above the retail floors, is widely accepted as one of Edinburgh’s most unloved buildings.
In its place the site’s owner TIAA Henderson Real Estate has unveiled plans for a new five-building “St James Quarter” containing alfresco and glazed-roof shopping precincts. Within the landmark development the existing John Lewis store will remain untouched, but retail space overall will nearly double.
Totalling 457,500sq ft of shopping space over three sweeping crescent-shaped levels, the project will also include premium office space, an apartment-hotel, a theatre and 138 flats with spectacular city views. At its heart will be a luxury hotel – one of two five-star resorts included in the designs – both featuring glass ceilings and roof-top restaurants.
Among the retailers and national chains which have already indicated they intend taking space in the new complex are: Abercrombie and Fitch, Banana Republic, Kenneth Cole, Nike, Muji, J Crew, Ted Baker, Tom Ford, Sephora, True Religion and 7 for All Mankind.
“This is a complete game-changer,” said city council leader Andrew Burns. “There is no doubt that in almost every economic arena Edinburgh punches above its weight, but the one area where it could do better is in its retail offer. I’m entirely confident that this St James Quarter will draw us up to comparable status with our major competitors — and that has got to be extremely good news.”
The business promotion body, Essential Edinburgh’s chairman Andy Neal claims the retail regeneration is a “fantastic opportunity to leapfrog Glasgow” and become “the pre-eminent shopping destination in central Scotland … Everything that’s going to happen with the St James Quarter is exactly as it should be and exactly what you would want to see,” he adds.
Scotland’s deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, explained that the development was only possible through a pioneering funding model called “regeneration accelerator model”, through which Holyrood provides loans based on estimated future income from business rates.
The public-funded deal will see the Scottish Government take a £61m stake in Henderson Real Estate’s project which would see the government claw back around £270m over 25 years. “Through schemes such as RAM we are increasing public investment in infrastructure across Scotland, which will create overall gains for the economy as a whole,” added the minister.
Martin Perry is director of development at Henderson Real Estate, which was first granted planning permission for the multi-million pound scheme back in 2009. “Securing this vital funding will ensure that Edinburgh remains one of Europe’s leading cities,” he said. “It will also pump £25m a year into the Scottish economy and give work to 2,300 people.”
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