Edinburgh Accies' controversial development loses Marks & Spencer as anchor store

Hospitality plans scaled back too

The project was due for completion in October, no it's the end of July.

MARKS & Spencer has pulled out of its role as anchor store for the controversial Accies development in Stockbridge.

The size of hospitality suite, which was at the heart of residents’ opposition to the project, has been scaled back.

And the charity behind the scheme says it doesn’t know when it will be able to start the second phase, which is to include a museum of rugby and cafe/bar.

But Alastair Graham, fund-raising co-ordinator for the Raeburn Place Foundation, said the scheme was “in good shape”. Replacements had been found for M&S and another tenant who has also withdrawn and Mr Graham said the rental income would end up higher than originally planned.

The original completion date for the project was October last year, so the work was already well behind when it had to stop because of coronavirus. It is now expected to be finished at the end of July.

M&S Simply Food was announced as the anchor store for site in Comely Bank Road in December 2016. It signed up to take three of the nine shop units and the foundation described the deal as “a huge vote of confidence in the development”.

Mr Graham said: “Marks & Spencer had the right to withdraw from their lease if there wasn’t completion by a certain time. They are not in the best financial position at the moment and they exercised that right not to take up the lease.

“We were very disappointed by that. It turned out they had changed their strategy about their food outlets - they didn’t want units of that size any more, they wanted smaller ones. We made an offer to reduce the space but they never responded to that.

“There was no problem letting space in this development. It underlines the attractiveness of the location.”

He said another tenant - whom he would not name - had also withdrawn but a replacement had been found for that space too.

”The rental income will be higher than in our plan so there is no financial impact from the changes.”

The plan was for Edinburgh Academical Football Club to have the whole of the floor above the shops for its clubhouse and hospitality suite, but Mr Graham said even before Covid the business case was “challenging” and now it is to be scaled back.

“We’ve taken stock, as has the football club, which was the tenant for that space, and they’ve decided the plan for a large hospitality operation up there was unlikely to be economically viable in the current climate so the football club will take a smaller area of that space and we will be renting some of that space out and we have a tenant for it.”

He said those objecting to the project when it was proposed were concerned about large functions taking place and noise and disruption as they emptied out. “Well they’re not going to be very large now.”

Mr Graham said fundraising for charities was very difficult just now, which had affected the second phase of the project.

“We were in discussions with the National Lottery but they have withdrawn all funding for new projects in 2020 and probably into 2021 because of the number of projects they have supported which are now in serious financial difficulty.

“We’re still committed to going ahead with the rest of the development but we don’t know when that will be.”

Bruce Thompson, chair of campaign group Save Stockbridge, said he was delighted the hospitality plans were being cut back.

“This is what we have said all along. What we’re a bit worried about is the whole thing is going to finish up as a white elephant.”