Strathclyde Business Park Celebrates Another Bumper Year

Strathclyde Business Park (SBP), one of Scotland's leading business locations, has recorded another year of significant growth.

The bumper year has seen the completion of Duart House, construction commencing on NG Bailey's new cutting-edge headquarters, the completion of the road upgrade programme and the introduction of several new services for park tenants.

The Business Park - owned and operated by HFD Group - has continued its growth by investing in a host of additional services and amenities for its 5,550 strong workforce.

Recent investment has included the £6.2m upgrading of the Park's road infrastructure. Completed in record time, the extensive upgrade project was split into several phases and included the introduction of a new slip road off the northbound A725, construction of the new roundabouts on the Diamond Interchange and the relocation of water, gas and telecom services.

After five years of campaigning, work has also commenced on the signalisation of the A725. The improvements will see the A725 continuing as two lane carriageway all the way to Shawhead, removing the current bottleneck as motorists squeeze down into one lane.

Duart House is the latest offering from Strathclyde Business Park and its most prestigious development to date. Enjoying a prominent position overlooking the A725, Duart House offers 74,000 sq ft of the highest quality serviced accommodation.

Duart House enhances the Park's conferencing facilities, with seminar suites equipped with the latest AV technology capable of accommodating up to 150 delegates. There are now over a dozen conferencing locations available throughout the Park with full AV, catering and support services.

All businesses located at the Park will also greatly benefit from Project ATLAS, a new pilot project to upgrade the technology infrastructure for Scottish businesses. SBP is the first business park in the country to benefit from the strategic investment, which enables tenants to access new advanced broadband and telecom services through an optical fibre network.

Another improvement for park tenants has been the announcement that leading sandwich shop O'Briens will open a new store at the highly successful SBP retail parade. The retail parade provides tenants with a host of facilities and services, including the Avondale Bar & Grill, Mr Bird's MYO Sandwich Bar, Jack & Jill's Day Care Nursery, Abbey National ATM Facilities and the Terminal 5 convenience store, which also provides tenants with photo processing, a dry cleaning service, prescription collection and a mobile phone repair service.

In addition to improving services for its staff, SBP has played an important role in supporting the local community. Park owner HFD Group recently raised over £24,000 for St Andrew's Hospice, through its annual black tie fundraising dinner.

The dinner was attended by over 170 businessmen and women who were keen to raise money for the Lanarkshire-based charity. Guests enjoyed a fantastic evening of entertainment, including speeches from high-profile after dinner speakers, Brian Donald and Russell Wardrop, whilst a raffle, auction and silent auction were also held.

SBP's ongoing commitment to continually improving the working environment for tenants and offering high quality and flexible office accommodation to suit all needs, encouraged leading global contract research organisation, PPD, to take up further office space at SBP.

In order to facilitate the company's continued expansion, a 34,000 sq ft Grade A bespoke office building will be built, situated alongside the recently completed Fleming House. This will increase PPD's presence on the Park to over 80,000 sq ft.

The company relocated its entire Scottish operations to SBP in early 2007, and the business park has proved to be the ideal location for PPD to expand and develop its business in Scotland.

Other exciting developments at the Park have included work commencing on the site of NG Bailey's new 'green' £5.5 million regional headquarters. Having outgrown its current offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the building services firm has chosen to relocate to a new facility which will be purpose built, to cater for its increasing workforce.

Situated in Calder Campus to the north of the Business Park, the 20,000 sq ft, two-storey building will house 150 NG Bailey employees and include features such as a ground source heat pump, photovoltaic glass, natural ventilation, rainwater harvesting, solar thermal collectors on the roof, integrated control systems for lighting and other services, recycling facilities and integral blinds which provide shade and prevent heat penetration.

It is hoped that the bespoke building design will achieve an 'Excellent' Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating upon completion.

William Hill - managing director of HF Developments, owner of Strathclyde Business Park - said: "This year has been a very exciting year for Strathclyde Business Park.

"It has been extremely rewarding to see the completion of the road upgrade programme after several years of personal campaigning to the Executive. The new improvements have greatly improved traffic flow and I'm sure that our park tenants will agree that it has made a vast difference to access in and out of the park.

"We have invested heavily over the last year in improving services and amenities at the business park, and I believe it is this investment coupled with the provision of high quality flexible office accommodation, in a central location, that has set us apart from our competitors and ensured that we remain at the top of our game. The future of the park has never looked better!"

Ends

Notes to Editors: Strathclyde Business Park

Strathclyde Business Park is owned by HF Developments.  Well established as one of Scotland's most successful business locations, it is situated in 155 acres of mature parkland near Bellshill, Lanarkshire. The Park provides over 1.4 million sq ft / 130,060 sq m of business and lifestyle space to some of Scotland’s top companies, including Scottish Power, Virgin Media, Woolwich Plc, Camelot, and William Grants Distillers. Over 6,000 people are currently employed at the Park.

The site Masterplan provides for a further 500,000 sq ft / 46,450 sq m of accommodation, which will bring an anticipated 4,000 extra jobs to the Park. Located in the heart of the Central Belt, the Park is minutes from the M8, M74 and M80, providing excellent access across Scotland and further afield.

For more information on the Park, and its location, accommodation, facilities and amenities, please visit our website: www.strathclydebusinesspark.com