ScottishPower to build new city HQ

ScottishPower has given the go-ahead for one of Glasgow’s largest office developments in decades in a move that will bring its staff together in a single £80 million building.

The energy giant will build a 14-storey block capable of housing 1,500 workers on a site in the city’s business district that before the financial crash was destined to house Scotland’s tallest skyscraper.

ScottishPower chairman Ignacio Galan said the sector’s expansion potential meant it needed a single base.

He said: “The energy sector in Scotland and across the UK is one that can help to boost the economy and offer highly skilled employment for thousands of people. Our plans in the UK in the coming years require an office complex that is fit for purpose to deliver and manage these investments.”

London-based property firm Helical Bar has been selected to develop the site following a competitive tender process and will work with its Scottish partner Dawn Developments on the new building.

Detailed negotiations have yet to take place but the project is expected to be “cost neutral” to ScottishPower, which will hand over its current offices in Cathcart, Yoker and Falkirk to Helical in payment.

Work on the complex is expected to start next year with completion by late 2015. It is thought to be the largest single occupier new-build office development in Glasgow for at least 25 years.