Grand opening for Scottish retail park - commercial mortgages

25 October 2007

Scotland''s largest retail park has opened for business following the completion of a £350 million construction project.

The Silverburn Retail Park in Glasgow is home to 95 stores spread over half a mile of land, and is almost twice as big as the next largest shopping centre in the country, according to the Daily Record.

The paper has reported that the interior of the mall is around 50 metres wider than a typical development in order to accommodate the huge numbers of shoppers who are expected to visit the retail park every day.

"Braehead in Renfrew is 600,000 square feet and the Gyle in Edinburgh is 300,000 square feet. Silverburn is one million square feet of prime retail and leisure space - which gives you an idea of the scale of the centre," said Richard Low, managing director of the centre''s owners Retail Property Holdings, speaking to the Daily Record.

"No one has ever built anything like this," Mr Low added.

Firms with commercial mortgages in the area will be looking to follow the example of London, which this week was named Europe''s best city in terms of demand for commercial property.