Developer seeks green backing

By ERIKKA ASKELAND
Published on 24/06/2012 01:54

PROPERTY developer Macdonald Estates is “looking closely” at potential support from the Green Investment Bank for its planned move into waste incineration.

The company, which has returned to profit after two years in the red, is widening its focus this year to include waste-to-energy projects. The first project is expected by the end of the year.

The Edinburgh-based firm said it made a £3.3 million pre-tax profit in the year to the end of December on the back of completing a number of developments for supermarkets. Last year, the company branched out into student housing development.

Dan Macdonald, chief executive, said that part of the firm’s success was down to its continued refusal to “indulge ourselves” in corporate debt.

The company said projects recently completed or currently under construction were valued at over £50m, including a supermarket leased to Morrisons at Gallowgate Glasgow, the final phase of Arbroath Retail Park and a mixed use scheme with a Sainsbury’s convenience store and 75 student flats at Argyle Street, Glasgow.

Macdonald said that the country faced “a period of time now where austerity will continue” but that there was “a positive edge to it”.

He said: “It means that everyone will work harder and strive to find new opportunities and create them.

“Those times where we didn’t need to bother too much are passed. We need to really try.”

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