Work starts on £350m Haymarket Edinburgh development

M&G Real Estate and its appointed property developer Qmile Group have announced the start of construction work at the £350 million Haymarket Edinburgh mixed-use development.Designed by globally renowned architect Foster + Partners, Haymarket will deliver more than 380,000 sq ft of much-needed Grade A office space along with hotel accommodation totalling 365 bedrooms and provision for 40,000 sq ft of retail space.The four-acre site will comprise five buildings, three of which will be offices and the other two hotels. It is estimated that the office space alone will accommodate up to 4,500 workers.In addition, at the heart of the development will be Haymarket Square, a vibrant new landscaped public space for the city centre which has been designed to offer leisure and retail opportunities as well as a social and events space.M&G Real Estate acquired the four-acre site in 2018 for £49.1m. Following a tendering process, the main contractor for Haymarket Edinburgh’s first phase is Sir Robert McAlpine. The contractor is currently on-site delivering Haymarket Edinburgh’s first building, 1 Haymarket Square, which will provide 110,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation and has a gross development value of £80m.Up to 500 ‘live’ direct and indirect construction jobs will be supported on the development during Haymarket Edinburgh’s three-year build programme.Qmile Group has previously worked with M&G Real Estate, Foster + Partners and Sir Robert McAlpine, to deliver the £750m mixed-use Quartermile development, also in Edinburgh city centre.Savills and JLL have been appointed as office agents and EYCO and Culverwell have been appointed as retail agents.