O2 is to take 110,000 sq ft in what will be a brand new building developed within Skypark. Skypark is referred to as Glasgow’s landmark business complex.

As part of its UK expansion plan, telecoms giant O2 is to house a new customer service centre and training facility within Skypark for more than 1,500 staff. The successful deal with O2 is one of the largest pre-lettings in the Glasgow office market in recent years.

Critical to O2’s move to Skypark was the availability of large floor plates, allowing the mobile services company to create vast open plan work spaces. The two-story building, SP4, which represents part of a £15m investment by Skypark’s owners, Allied London, was designed with the aspiration of bringing another major employer to Glasgow. It offers state-of-the-art IT service infrastructure alongside environmental features including central atrium, restaurant facilities and urban garden.

The first phase of the new build will be ready for staff to move in by November 2005. The whole project will be complete in June next year.

Over the last two years Allied London has repositioned and rebranded Skypark specifically with the data and call centre market as its target. The securing of O2 at Skypark takes the number of contact work stations within the building to in excess of 3,000, with a total of some 4,500 people in the complex.

Some 200,000 sq ft has been let within Skypark in the last twelve months to tenants such as Cendant (Travel 2 Travel 4); RMJM Architects; Dermalogica; Jarvis Facilities; Harley Haddow and SPH Property Search, Barnardo’s; Cube Housing Association and Horiba Jobin Yvonn IBH.m Many are contacts centres.

Michael Ingall, Chief Executive for Allied London, says:

“We have always had tremendous ambition for Skypark as one of our flagship developments within our portfolio. Many of our new strategies for developing and managing assets successfully, from tenant/landlord relationships through to office services, have been pioneered here. O2’s announcement that it has chosen Skypark is a reflection of the advances we have made in providing workplace environments that meet the demands of modern working lives and modern businesses and our success in appealing to call and contact operators. Two years ago we set out to reposition Skypark for exactly this type of occupier and provide the facilities and framework to enable them to operate successfully.”

Allied London’s Project and Asset Manager, Pam Over (Commercial Partner of CKD Galbraith) who heads up the Skypark team and has been working closely with O2 and other agencies for the past 3 months to secure the company’s move to the complex stated:

“This is a highly significant deal on many levels. O2’s decision to create 1,500 new jobs in the city is an endorsement of the skills and expertise available. It also demonstrates that with the right kind of working environment, Glasgow and Scotland can support a thriving contact centre industry.

“For Skypark it justifies Allied London’s decision to commence the development work of SP4 and SP6 on a speculative basis and their faith in the product. We believed that there was a market for office accommodation on scales of 30 – 120,000 sq ft, when part of an existing high quality offer. We bring to tenants a holistic service, good management and infrastructure facilities along with a modern workplace environment which embraces such things as restaurants, an art gallery, local ‘what’s on’ listings and concierge services.”

Notes to Editors

Skypark
Skypark is located immediately west of Glasgow city centre, in the Finnieston business development area, close to the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre and the world famous “Armadillo”. A substantial landmark property, formerly a complex of slated factories, it stands on a 2.5 hectare (6 acre) site bounded by Elliot Street, Houldsworth Street, Finnieston Street and the Clydeside Expressway (the latter providing direct access to the M8 motorway).

Skypark comprises 51,095 sq m (550,000 sq ft) with a further 10,000 now to be constructed. The complex was acquired by Allied London Properties in 1994. Since that time, the company has set about a phased redevelopment/refurbishment, which has transformed it into a modern, self contained, high rise business park, comprising of six buildings of multi-tenanted, highly specified, new and upgraded office, call centre and work space.

Ryder and Montagu Evans are leasing agents for Allied London and Doherty Bains acted O2.

Allied London
Allied London - a major UK property company owned by Deutsche Bank, JER Partners and management - has substantial investment and development projects in the UK’s principal cities including London, Manchester and Glasgow.

Allied London specialises in complex town and city centre mixed-use and retail redevelopment schemes creating stunning projects based on principles of sustainable development, architectural excellence and efficient and economic deliverability. Working with both private and public sectors, it delivers original projects that combine creative vision with commercial rigour. A focused yet innovative approach is applied to each location with the ultimate goal of creating value. This is achieved by repositioning a site through imaginative development and redevelopment, or through state-of-the-art refurbishment and change of use. All the company’s schemes - as well as its own business philosophy - reflect the growing demands on cities to be dynamic, modern and sustainable environments.

At present, the company currently has over 278,000 sq m (3 million sq ft) of real estate under ownership or management. Current development projects amount to in excess of 453,000 sq m (4.9 million sq ft), comprising office, retail, residential and leisure uses including London – 14,399 sq m (155,000 sq ft), Manchester – 418,050 sq m (4.5 million sq ft) and Glasgow – 51,095 sq m (550,000 sq ft).

About O2 UK

O2 is a leading provider of mobile services to consumers and businesses in the UK. It is the leader in non-voice services, including text, media messaging, games, music and video, as well as always on data connections via GPRS, 3G and WLAN. Every day, O2’s 14 million customers send more than 30 million text messages. O2 (UK) is a subsidiary of O2 plc which also owns O2 branded mobile operators in Ireland and Germany as well as the O2 Airwave emergency services network in the UK.

For further information please contact:

In London:
Michael Ingall 020 7291 7999
Tony Danaher, Tamesis 020 7908 3200

In Glasgow:
Pam Over 0131-556 4422
Claire Macfarlane, Allied London Properties 0141-221 6927
Elizabeth Lambley, Indigo (PR) Ltd, 0131 554 1230

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