New employment opportunities will emerge from sale of 30,000 sq ft plot in Rutherglen, says Bob Serafini

Sale of the first and largest plot at a new business park is forecast to bring upwards of 100 jobs to Rutherglen.

The land at urban regeneration company Clyde Gateway’s 12 acre Rutherglen Links Business Park has been purchased for speculative development purposes by the commercial property division of Harris Finance.

The privately-owned Scottish company will invest around £2.5 million on the site to build 30,000 sq ft of speculative industrial/hybrid units which have the potential to create 55 jobs for the local community.

Harris Finance is already headquartered in the area and has a successful local track record in developing new commercial properties and as well as refurbishing others.

Ross Harris, whose firm has already brought more than 50 jobs to the area, said: "The East End of Glasgow has been transformed thanks to the work of Clyde Gateway and we are excited at the prospect of encouraging further regeneration and job creation here through our own speculative investment in high quality industrial space at Rutherglen Links."

Fiona Kell, inward investment manager for the URC, said: "We are delighted by the prospect of triggering new spec development at the business park and all the associated benefits this will bring to the area in stimulating further business and employment opportunities."

She said Gateway was fast becoming a leading destination to do business in Scotland, across a whole variety of sectors: "The site offers premier, energy efficient and low cost investment and development opportunities. Firms moving here also have the advantage of very good connectivity through road and public transport links, business support and superfast broadband."

Harris Finance is a family business which specialises in providing loan finance to small and medium sized operations and sole traders in the Central Belt of Scotland, including a speciality in lending to the taxi industry. Its commercial property division develops and rents commercial property in the west of Scotland.

It will initially undertake advance construction of two units during 2016, which will provide flexible industrial or hybrid space of 20,000 and 10,000 sq ft respectively.

Two floors of the first office building on the business park, called One Rutherglen Links, were let to technical services firms SPIE UK earlier this year, bringing 140 jobs to the area.

Clyde Gateway, established following the announcement Glasgow was to hold the 2014 Commonwealth Games, has seen £1.5 billion invested in the area in the last eight years, from both public and private sector.

A challenge for Scottish entrepreneurs?


With the property industry still in a state of shock after the Brexit decision, and millions of pounds wiped off property shares in the first few days after the vote, positive comment has been in short supply in the market.

Scotland’s commercial property’s sales were already 40 per cent down, to £619m, in the first quarter of 2016, and that was before investors started writing clauses into contracts giving them the right to walk away from real estate deals in the event of a vote to leave the EU.

David Davidson, right, chairman of Cushman & Wakefield in Scotland, says many decisions on property relocations and expansion plans had also been delayed and forecasts there will certainly be no turnaround in the fortunes of our property market
in 2016.

However, this doyen of the investment game can always be relied to see the bright side.

"The best we can hope for is that the fall in value for Sterling against the Euro and Dollar will attract more inward investment and that Scottish entrepreneurialism will come to the fore and look for ways to take advantage of the opportunities and challenges ahead," he said.

Eureka moment for EK office building

Cloud business systems provider Eureka Solutions has moved into a new headquarters in East Kilbride.

The award winning firm has taken a 6500 sq ft top floor wing of Westpoint House at Peel Park on a 10-year lease at a rental of £12.50 per sq ft.

The investment, coming after a significant increase in growth and a surge in staff recruitment to the current figure of 45, includes extensive purpose built fit-out of the company’s space in a building it will share with big name companies IBM and Wipro.

The new office includes dual fibre connection, supplied from two sources, to ensure 100 per cent connection at all times, as well as natural ventilation, better meeting, conference, kitchen and car parking facilities. MD Gillian Livingstone said: "We have spent 12 happy years in our home at Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, during which we have grown from four to 45. The move is an important milestone for the company."

Savills advised the landlord of the 43,000 sq ft office building.

NHS take last slice of Piazza

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has taken the last remaining open plan office suite situated above the Piazza Shopping Centre in Paisley (pictured).

The health body has leased the entire 16,000 sq ft second floor of the property, which was seeking a rental of £10 per sq ft.

Emma Mackenzie, director of landlord New River Retail, said the move would bring another 220 people into the town centre. The Care Inspectorate and British Red Cross are existing tenants.