On Friday 20^th January, we held our monthly roundtable discussion and heard from Martin Perry, Director of Development at TH Real Estate, who are the developers of Edinburgh St James. Martin specialises in large-scale, retail-led, mixed-used development and works both across the UK and mainland Europe.

We thought we’d share some of the key facts we learnt at this useful roundtable:

• The Edinburgh St James development will provide 850,000 sq ft of retail space over 3 levels, with around 85 retail units and 20 food & beverage outlets.
• The complex will include a 214 room 5* boutique hotel, provided by W Hotels, and will also include a cinema, 1600 space car unit and 150 luxury residential units. 3 event spaces will also be created including a private square in the middle of the complex which could be utilised in support of Edinburgh’s major festivals.
• The complex is likely to take Edinburgh from 13^th to 8^th in the UK retail space rankings and it’s estimated that c.2,300 jobs will be created when the centre is complete, with a further c.5,000 construction jobs during the development phase.

Edinburgh St James is due to open by Christmas 2020, with residential space opening in 2021 and there are already a number of discussions underway with a number of leading high street retailers.

If you’d like to learn more about the Edinburgh St James development please visit: http://www.edinburghstjames.com/