Building Briefs - February 19th

• Airdrie school scoops national building award

The building has won Best New Build Project at the annual Roofing, Cladding and Insulation (RCI) Magazine awards, which are held every year to recognize excellence and innovation in construction.

Highlighting the Hilltop Primary, the judges said: “This project has a unique, drum shaped frontage that creates a strong and architecturally diverse structure. It follows the modern school design and has been very well executed.”

Boasting an imposing rounded front, the striking effect is created using 10mm copper-effect Parklex cladding, which was specified by Glasgow-based Reid Roof and supplied by Vivalda, which has an office in nearby Cumbernauld.

Project architect was Norr Consultants, which has an office in Glasgow.

• Ayr set for new cinema

A brand new, state of the art, eight-screen cinema is coming to the Kyle Centre in Ayr, with plans for bars and restaurants, leisure activities such as virtual reality, soft play, indoor golf experience and a refurbished car park.

South Ayrshire Council said: “This development, along with the new Leisure Centre at the Arran Mall, will transform Ayr and help us realise our vision for a vibrant town centre, making South Ayrshire a better place to live.

“This is fantastic news, not just for cinema lovers, but for local businesses and job opportunities. We are working in partnership with the Arc Cinema and Squarestone Hub to deliver the project, aiming for construction to start at the Kyle Centre in 2023.”

• Burges Salmon advises BayWa r.e. UK on ten-turbine Scottish wind farm acquisition

A multidisciplinary team from independent UK law firm Burges Salmon has advised BayWa r.e. UK, the renewable energy developer, on its acquisition of High Constellation Wind Farm from Blue Energy.

The proposed wind farm is located on the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland and, once installed, its ten turbines will have a capacity of 50MW. Blue Energy, a leading UK developer of renewable energy infrastructure, will work closely with BayWa r.e. during the development of the project with a view to collaborating on other large-scale, Scottish wind farms in the future.

From Burges Salmon’s Edinburgh office, Corporate Finance partner Danny Lee, supported by solicitor Niall Mackle, led the cross-sector team advising BayWa r.e. on the acquisition of High Constellation Wind Farm, with support from the firm’s Real Estate, Planning, and Energy, Power and Utilities teams.

• Building and engineering the future at West Lothian College

West Lothian College is investing £500,000 in expanding its engineering and construction workshops to meet industry and student demand.

After a competitive tendering process, the college appointed Livingston-based company Maxi Construction to carry out the work.

The new workshop area will double the space on the college campus to deliver the practical aspects of engineering and construction courses. These updated and expanded facilities will enable the college to deliver even higher quality vocational learning to students and apprentices.

The work includes a new deck mezzanine floor in the existing workshop, a corridor linking to the main building, a new lift for materials, and an external fire escape.

The project is being part-financed through additional funding from the Scottish Funding Council announced last year to stimulate the local construction sector by college estates developments following the first lockdown.

• Green light for £1m food store at Glasgow car showroom site

Grocery chain Farmfoods has been given permission to build a new store in south west Glasgow.

The shop will be at 320 Peat Road, between Nitshill and Priesthill.

The site was previously occupied by an Arnold Clark car dealership and workshop and is beside St Robert Bellarmine Church.

• Dundee to approve new Deveron Terrace car park

Dundee City Council could give the go-ahead for the construction of a car park at Deveron Terrace, off Spey Drive, on the site of recently demolished lock-up garages.

Over £130,000 of improvement works are being proposed at the location including earthworks, drainage, carriageway surfacing, street lighting, signage, bay-marking, fencing, footway works and the installation of electric vehicle charging points.

Neighbourhood services committee convener Anne Rendall said: “These proposals are very positive. They make good use of existing land, owned under the Housing Revenue Account, to provide facilities following feedback from local residents in the area.

“The plans are in line with the council priorities on sustainability, with the provision of charging facilities for electric vehicles and will be suitable for the larger modern car.”

If approved, the works are scheduled to begin in March and be completed by the end of May.

The committee will meet on Monday 22nd February.

• Further work needed to make Cleghorn Bridge safe

Further work is needed at Cleghorn Bridge in Clydesdale before it can be safely reopened to the public.

The bridge has suffered significant and sudden further deterioration since it initially closed in January.

This means an increase in the scope, scale and complexity of the repair, strengthening and rebuilding work required at the bridge. 

Repair work was also hampered by a major water main needing to be diverted, as well as broadband cabling having to be temporarily supported and protected throughout the construction period.

• CBRE reveals industrial market performance

Real estate advisor CBRE has released its market overview on the Industrial and Logistics sector across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen in 2020.

In Glasgow, the largest market in Scotland accounting for approximately 65 of all transactions during 2020, take-up totalled 3.56m sq ft, up 10% on 2019.  Prime industrial rents increased to £8.75 per sq ft, representing a 2.9% year on year increase, whilst rent for logistics properties increased to £6.25 per sq ft, an increase of 14.2% year on year. 

Take-up in the Edinburgh market totalled 1.17m sq ft in 2020, down 21% on 2019. It was mainly dominated by large Heritable (freehold) transactions, accounting for 61% of the total figure.

The Aberdeen market saw activity growing for the fourth year in a row, despite the wider economic challenges as a result of both the pandemic and the oil price drop. Take-up for 2020 totalled 720,780 sq ft, up 1% from 2019.

Small transactions dominated the market with 41 lettings below 3,000 sq ft and 65 below 10,000 sq ft, however there was also a slight increase in activity in the 30,000 sq ft plus bracket with noted deals to Amazon and FedEx.

• Cityfibre project continues in Inverness city centre

Fibre-optic cable installation works along Academy Street in Inverness will start on Monday (22 February) as part of the ongoing roll-out of the high-speed broadband

The works along Academy street will be carried out in stages over a 4 week period. The contractor will have to temporarily remove the current Covid-19 social spacing barriers to enable the works to progress. This will be done in short sections, as the project progresses from the Union Street end towards Chapel Street, with the barriers replaced as soon as practicable.

A Highland Council spokesman said: “We apologise for any inconvenience but with many local businesses currently shut and only essential journeys permitted we hope that any temporary disruption to the Spaces For People measures along Academy Street will be kept to a minimum. Work will be phased and carried out in sections and we will be closely monitoring progress.”

• Fife Council commits over £5m to tackle flooding

An investment of over £5 million over the next ten years will help tackle flooding in Fife.

Councillors at a meeting of Fife Council’s policy and co-ordination committee agreed the spend which will help improve the way the council responds to flooding emergencies and reduce the impact on local communities.

Following the severe flooding caused by extreme rain in August last year, the council has been learning lessons from the incident and planning to improve its response to future events.

The report agreed by councillors also outlined how the council will provide support to communities following a flooding incident, however, the council has stressed that private homeowners have to take responsibility for their own properties and the council is stressing that having the appropriate insurance cover in place is vital. Although council-owned properties are covered by the council’s building insurance, tenants should make sure they have their own contents insurance in place to cover any damage to belongings.