Strathclyde Business Park

Strathclyde Business Park is Scotland's Premier Business Park, offering extensive business and lifestyle space and being home to over 240 companies employing approximately 6,300 people.

The project was a 50/50 private/public joint venture sponsored by CBC and Fusion Assets (part of North Lanarkshire Council). It consists of 44,000 sq ft of industrial units plus 97 car parking spaces, and was built on 1.5 hectares of brownfield land. The key drivers for the sponsors were economic regeneration and delivering employment outcomes.

At the time of entering into the transaction there were no pre-lets in place, with the co-sponsors working together through the construction phase and operational phase to secure tenants for the new space. The development was completed to shell and core and then fitted out to meet tenants’ space requirements. Through the project an estimated 49 full time construction jobs were sustained, and numerous SMEs have been supported.

The project has demonstrated the alignment of the SPRUCE fund and Scottish Government strategic objectives with regard to government regeneration policy. The investment provides access to development finance for speculative property projects and hence addressing the market failure for this in the banking market.

• Amber invested in this asset as it met the objectives of the SPRUCE fund.
• Amber is the Fund Manager to the Scottish Partnership for Regeneration in Urban Centres (SPRUCE) which is an Urban Development Fund (UDF) that supports regeneration and green energy projects throughout Scotland. The fund provides an innovative source of finance to eligible projects which are aligned to the Scottish Government’s regeneration and green energy strategies. Amber has been managing SPRUCE since its inception in 2011.
• SPRUCE is a recyclable regeneration and energy efficiency fund, sourced from the Scottish Government, the European Investment Bank and the private sector, and is an innovative source of finance for projects that deliver outcomes aligned to key Scottish Government policy objectives.
• SPRUCE supports a wide range of urban regeneration activity within well-defined, integrated, sustainable urban development plans. The Fund’s Investment Policy seeks projects in the following sectors: 
  • Rehabilitation of the physical environment
  • Construction of new buildings and/or renovation of existing ones and associated site specific infrastructure and servicing
  • Training and e-learning centres, including investment to increase ICT access
  • Creation of safe transport links between areas of opportunity and areas of need
  • Energy efficiency retrofit works delivering energy savings of at least 20% per annum
  • Energy production from renewable energy and low carbon technologies