About St James Quarter

 

Development control committee gave a ‘’minded to grant’’ consent in February 2009. The scheme was then referred to Scottish Ministers and received formal Outline Planning consent in June 2009 following agreement on a section 75 contribution.
 
In August 2009 the council resolved to use compulsory purchase powers to support Henderson Global Investors land and tenancy acquisition discussions.
 
The £850 million project with transform the site of existing St James Shopping and New St Andrew’s House with a landmark development that will include:
A world-class shopping offer
·                             Up to 250 homes
·                             Two new hotels
·                             Vibrant public spaces
·                             A wide selection of cafés and restaurants
·                             Around 160,000 sq ft of modern office space
·                             Improved connections to key transport hubs, including Edinburgh’s trams and buses
·                             Approximately 1,800 underground parking spaces.
The existing St James Shopping Centre was built in the 1970s and has regularly been voted Edinburgh’s ugliest building.  HGI purchased the centre - together with the adjoining New St Andrew’s House office block - in 2006 and has since been drawing up plans to rejuvenate the prominent city centre site.
HGI believes that the St James Quarter will become an iconic destination that will restore Edinburgh’s reputation as one of Europe’s leading shopping cities.  It is forecast that the new development will create up to 4,000 jobs and provide a significant and sustained boost to tourism expenditure of around £20 million annually.