Balfour Beatty relocating seven offices to Eurocentral

Balfour, which has existing sites in locations including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Shotts, is relocating the offices into a single base at the Maxim Office Park.

The company, which is involved in projects such as Dundee’s £80 million waterfront and Aberdeen’s £550m bypass, believes the move will allow its people to work closer together and reduce costs.

A spokesperson said: “This move will greatly enhance the collaborative offering across the Scottish markets by bringing together a number of business units and enabling functions in to one location and will also significantly reduce the cost of our Scottish office footprint.”

Balfour will take over around 43,600 square feet across three levels of the Maxim 7 building on a ten-year lease.

Asset manager Craig Ritchie said: “It is great news that I can confirm we’ve secured Balfour Beatty as a new tenant at the park, an internationally renowned organisation involved in some of the biggest construction and infrastructure projects in the world.”

Cushman & Wakefield and Ryden represented Maxim Office Park in the deal, while CBRE acted for Balfour.

Alistair Urquhart, associate director at CBRE, said: “We’d been helping the team to explore opportunities in central Scotland for some time and when we viewed Maxim the team was instantly impressed, not only with the flexible and adaptable nature of the space but also by the fact it is located in the very heart of the Central Belt, right on the new M8 which makes Maxim a unique proposition for businesses.”

Balfour’s office reduction is part of the group’s “Build to Last” transformation programme launched by chief executive Leo Quinn two years ago in an effort to return the business to profit. At the time Quinn said the business had become too complex after a series of takeovers.

The company made a £199 million loss in 2015, but returned to profit last year.