Scottish Capital to invest £50m in pay-as-you-go office space expansion

Scottish Capital has announced plans to invest £50 million in the creation of a portfolio of “pay-as-you-go” business parks for start-up companies.

The private investment vehicle of car park entrepreneur John McGlynn said that its pioneering ‘WorkSpace’ service will provide office and storage space on a flexible basis that could increase and decrease by square footage on a month-to-month basis.

His vision for the venture is to have 10 sites established over the next 12 to 18 months providing purpose-built drive-up units with 24/7 access various sizes from lockers to more than 200sq ft.

The first WorkSpace business centre has already opened on a former MacKays clothing site next to Glasgow Airport covering a gross area of 180,000sq ft.

It includes more than 44,000 square feet of space developed, consisting of WorkSpace offices and studios and 640 self-storage units.

When completed the site will boast 90,000 square feet of WorkSpace areas.

But Mr McGlynn, who himself founded Entrepreneurial Exchange, is eyeing expansion and having started his first business from a law school library, he said more start-ups need support to establish a base.

He said that with increasing numbers of businesses emerging from the Entrepreneurial Spark accelerator programme, that demand for such a facility as WorkSpace is also growing.

He explained: “People come out the other side and the support mechanism doesn’t exist. A new start company, the chances are they’ve got no idea how big their first order is going to be.”

Mr McGlynn also said he sees the venture as a great way to foster growth of small local business.

He said: “At a time when there feels to be some uncertainty in the country, the more flexible we can make things for businesses the more likely they are to take the leap of faith to start or grow, we want to encourage and help that.”

He went on: “Most start-up companies don’t have the cash to pay for a property or commit to a three- or five-year lease, never mind asking a lawyer to review a 50-page lease,” he said. “The economy has moved on and people who are providing business space have to move with it.

He added: “If they have a huge order they can take ten storerooms, a month later they can give us nine back.

“It’s to create ultra-flexibility; this is basically the pay-as-you-go mobile phone for the property business.”