Seven bidders lined up to battle for historic brewery site in capital

SEVEN bidders, including Miller Group, are fighting over a historic former brewery site in the heart of Edinburgh that had been planned as a global headquarters for HBOS before the banking crisis.

The area, which housed the Fountain Brewery until it was shut in 2005, has attracted strong interest despite the depressed conditions in the commercial property market.

Miller Group is believed to have submitted a bid in conjunction with Land Securities while other hopefuls are understood to include Macdonald Estates and Muse Developments, part of construction firm part of Morgan Sindall.

Another potential bidder is Grosvenor, the property development firm owned by the Duke of Westminster.

Grosvenor already owns the Fountainbridge North site across the road, which is currently being developed as the Springside housing estate.

The Duke’s firm was controversially gazumped by HBOS in 2008 after it had it joined the race to bid on the southern brewery site as part of a consortium with Royal Bank of Scotland and house builder AMA.

Edinburgh Council has also stated that it is keen on the vast 13-acre site, which Scottish & Newcastle sold to HBOS for a reported £100 million prior to its near collapse and takeover by Lloyds TSB. The council hopes to use the area to relocate Boroughmuir High School.

The site has consent for more than 750 homes or flats, a 250-bedroom hotel, plus office and retail space. However, several of the bids are understood to propose additional uses for the land.

HBOS had set out to build a landmark complex to house around 6,000 staff and rival the grandeur and prestige of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn headquarters, but the plan was quickly dropped in the wake of its takeover.

The bank opted instead to pursue planning consent, which it was believed would make it more attractive to potential bidders.

Despite the high selling price in 2008, the site is expected to reach just a fraction of that sum after commercial property prices collapsed following the banking crisis.

Chris Dougray, head of the Edinburgh office at Lambert Smith Hampton, said the deal would be “market defining” for Scotland.

“Given the well documented difficulties in the property market – and in particular relating to the development sector – a successful disposal of this site would be great news for Edinburgh,” Dougray added.