Quartermile lands year's biggest letting in Edinburgh

Financial services giant State Street is to relocate its Edinburgh operations in what is understood to be the city's largest office letting so far this year.

State Street is moving its 800 staff from Edinburgh's Ferry Road to the Quartermile development. Picture: Contributed

Property developer Quartermile Developments said it had pre-let more than 65,500 square feet within its new £35 million six-storey office building to the Massachusetts-headquartered firm.

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State Street is to move its 800 staff from its current base on Ferry Road to the site of the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in the city centre.

The Quartermile 3 building is the final office complex to be constructed at the £750m development, which is managed by property investment company Moorfield Group. Funded by M&G Real Estate, construction of Quartermile 3 is well underway and will complete a suite of four office buildings at the site.

State Street will be based in the top five floors of Quartermile 3, leaving only the remaining 7,363sq ft ground floor to be occupied. The fit out of the Foster & Partners-designed office accommodation is being incorporated into the build programme meaning State Street’s occupation is expected to commence in early 2018.

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The firm has agreed a 15-year lease although the financial details have not been disclosed. State Street was founded in 1792, has revenues of about $10.8bn (£8.6bn) and offices in 30 countries.

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Paul Curran, managing director of Quartermile Developments, said: “State Street’s decision to move to Quartermile further endorses the strength of Edinburgh’s commercial property market.

“With Quartermile 3’s ground floor representing the final opportunity for businesses to locate to our development, we are talking to a number of potential occupiers and hope to be able to make further positive announcements in the near future.”

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Adjacent to Quartermile 3 is the £50m seven-storey Quartermile 4 building. Totalling 128,600 sq ft, the building was 100 per cent let four months before practical completion.

Current commercial occupiers at the Quartermile site include FanDuel, Skyscanner, Cirrus Logic and legal firms Morton Fraser and Maclay Murray & Spens.

Aaron Pope, director at M&G Real Estate, added: “The successful pre-letting of Quartermile 4 in its entirety before practical completion and Edinburgh’s largest deal in 2017 having now been secured at Quartermile 3 reinforce our decision to fund the buildings’ speculative development.”

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