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Aberdeen City Council has voted in favour of the conversion of Marischal College into its new corporate headquarters.
City councillors voted by 23 votes to eight, with one abstention, to endorse the council’s previous decision in 2005 to breathe new life into the granite building.
The new budget for the project at £80.4 million and agreed that council properties surplus to requirements would be sold off to help meet the bill.
Costs have risen due to construction industry inflation, the need to ensure the new building within the façade of Marischal College is environmentally sustainable, and a requirement of a full fit-out, modern IT systems and contingencies.
Deputy council leader and resources management convener Councillor Kevin Stewart made clear that the exciting Marischal project would not turn into “another Holyrood” with ever-rising costs.
Two tender packages will be issued by the city council next year – for the strip-out and demolition of the Marischal College interior, and for the new-build element of the programme to create 16,200 square metres of modern office space for up to 1,300 city council staff.
Mr Stewart said: “These are not open contracts – they are closed contracts. The kind of spiralling costs we have seen elsewhere will not happen here.”
He also said the project remained the best value scheme when compared to the two other competing methods of providing accommodation for council staff in the years ahead – a new-build office block on a greenfield site or a root-and-branch refurbishment of the existing St Nicholas House headquarters.
City Council leader Kate Dean concluded: “What we have in Marischal College is an opportunity to preserve the city’s heritage. We have the opportunity to create the next stage of this city’s heritage. We can produce a showcase building which is environmentally sustainable and a landmark for the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency.”
The Marischal College programme target is for staff to move into the new building during the first quarter of 2011.
(JM)
