News Article

Massive jobs boost for former Chungwa site

19/12/2007

Belshill Speaker

OVER 7,000 jobs are expected to be created at Eurocentral near Holytown. A new £330 million office park is being built at the former Chunghwa Picture Tubes site at the business park within the next two and a half years, potentially bringing thousands of new posts. The 756,000 sq ft Maxim office park will be one of the largest speculative projects of its kind in the UK.

Maxim's chief executive Karen Campbell said:

"Scotland already has an excellent reputation for innovation, enterprise and social responsibility. "Maxim offers quality office space and together with innovative funding, the development will be attractive to UK and international occupiers. "Everything will be in place by March 2010. We are already talking to potential tenants who will receive attractive financial packages to relocate to Maxim together with benefiting from working in a top class environment, with high quality buildings, good transport links and have accessibility to a highly skilled workforce."

The first office building is due for completion in December, 2008, with a further nine due to be built by 2010. Around 500 jobs will be created during the construction phase. The privately funded project was co-ordinated by Tritax, who bought the former Chunghwa site in 2003.

Ian Ross, director of Tritax, added:

"In terms of our plans for the development, the Chunghwa building was the wrong building in the wrong place. "We have been listening to the views of prospective occupiers who have said that while the financial incentive packages – which arise from the status of Eurocentral as a former Enterprise Zone – are highly competitive, they wanted to move to a development which is of the highest quality and offers an attractive environment for staff and visitors alike. "The fact that work has already started on all the infrastructure, landscaping and ancillary facilities, when this might usually take a decade or more, means Maxim will deliver on all accounts and create a platform for significant job creation in the area."