Work Gets Underway on O2's New Home

Construction work has got underway at Skypark, Glasgow’s landmark business complex, ready for the arrival of mobile phone giant O2, with Charlie Gordon, outgoing Leader of the Glasgow City Council marking the occasion by officially “cutting the sod”.

Mike Ingall, Chief Executive of Allied London and Andrew Neish, Project Manager for O2 joined Councillor Gordon for the ceremony which heralds the start of the £14 million project to create a new state of the art contact centre and training facility for O2 in Glasgow providing up to 110,000 sq ft over 3 floors.

Home to 1,500 O2 employees the redevelopment of SP4 will offer high-tech 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 O2 staff by November with the whole project due for completion by June 2006.

Mike Ingall, Chief Executive of Allied London, says:

“We are delighted that both Councillor Gordon and Andrew Neish from O2 were able to mark this occasion with us today. Having both played such influential roles in securing the O2 deal, it was appropriate for us to advance the project together.

“Over the past 35 years Skypark has continually evolved and developed to attract new business. In this case, we have applied an innovative approach to the redevelopment of SP4 through a state of the art refurbishment and look forward to its completion next year and the arrival of O2.

SP4 is part of Allied London’s £15m investment at Skypark and reinforces the company’s commitment to the regeneration of Finnieston and the surrounding area.

Notes to Editors

1. 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, 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 started life as the Clydeway Industrial Centre, comprising 46,450 sq m (500,000 sq ft) of flatted (multi-storey) industrial accommodation within two six and eight storey buildings. It 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.

Ryden and Montagu Evans are joint letting agents and CKD Galbraith is asset manager.

2. Allied London Properties
Allied London Properties - 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).

For further information please contact

Jen Shinwell
Indigo (PR) Ltd
Tel 0131 554 1230