Centrica pays record rent for new office

A NEW office building in Aberdeen has achieved a record rent level for Scotland after it landed energy giant Centrica as a tenant.

The group has agreed to take up the top three floors of the iQ office building, paying 31 per sq ft on a long lease, industry sources confirmed. Centrica will occupy half of the 125,000sq ft building.

The rental figure just edges out the price paid by software firm Microsoft when it took the two topmost floors in Edinburgh's WaverleyGate development in 2008.

Centrica is the first tenant at the city-centre iQ scheme, part of a 75 million build project that also includes a 185-room Radisson hotel which opened last summer.

The developer, Edinburgh-based Hazledene, declined to comment on the rental price.

First Minister Alex Salmond, who performed the turf-cutting in 2008, praised Hazledene for a development of "magnificent quality".