Jobs boost as work starts on new Quartermile flats

edinburgh development Quartermile has started work on two residential buildings comprising 135 flats, supporting hundreds of jobs during their construction.

Quartermile development on the site of the old Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Developers expect to deliver this new accommodation from spring 2017, and said this will complete the southern border with the Meadows park, bringing the combined gross development value of building projects currently under way at the 19-acre site to more than £150 million.

Quartermile Developments managing director Paul Curran said: “This is a major step towards completion of what is the largest privately funded regeneration project in Scotland and represents further significant investment in Quartermile.

“We anticipate massive interest in the 135 new properties given the success we have had selling off-plan with our two latest apartment buildings, City Meadows and The Lofts.”

The 500 or so jobs will come from work on the latest residential buildings combined with other projects on the development including the £50m Quartermile 4 office building. Curran added: “This announcement comes just a few weeks after our deal with FanDuel for the top three floors of Quartermile 4 which, at 58,000 sq ft, was Edinburgh’s largest open market pre-let in over ten years.”

Once finished, Quartermile will include 1,050 flats, 370,000sq ft of office accommodation and 65,000sq ft of retail and leisure space. It was acquired in 2013 by Moorfield Real Estate Fund III in a multi-million-pound deal, and businesses on site include Investec and IBM.