Official Opening of Crichiebank Business Centre

The official opening of the Crichiebank Business Centre, Port Elphinstone near Inverurie will take place today, Friday 23 September at 3pm. This is the tenth serviced office centre to be opened by Enterprise North East Trust (Enterprise); there are nine similar centres in locations across the north east, centres located in Fraserburgh, Peterhead (Burnside), Ellon and Westhill are managed by Enterprise in partnership with Aberdeenshire Council.

Aberdeenshire Provost Raymond Bisset is opening the Crichiebank Business Centre at 3pm; Councillor Bisset was involved in the turf cutting when building began on the new centre at the end of April 2004.

Chris Travis, chief executive of Enterprise comments, "Since the doors to the centre opened on 2 May 2005 we have been extremely pleased with the interest that new and growing businesses have shown in Crichiebank Business Centre; occupancy rates are sitting at over 90%. Enterprise has invested in the region of £1 million in the Crichiebank Business Centre and it is gratifying to see that we were correct in our assessment of market needs in relation to growing medium sized enterprises in the north east. Partnership has been a key factor in the success of this project with Aberdeenshire Council playing an important role in realising the project."

The commitment of another local business, International Paper, to helping provide a setting where new businesses can be nurtured has also been part of the process which has resulted in the new centre.

Ken Lennox, Financial Director of International Paper (UK) Ltd comments, "At International Paper we believe that established businesses have a responsibility, where possible, to do what they can to help new businesses start out and prosper. International Paper is happy to have been able to lease the house and land which has been used for the Crichiebank Business Centre to Enterprise for a forty year period on favourable terms, to help young local businesses."

The building work at the Crichiebank Business Centre was carried out by Bancon Ltd. They have built twenty one new office suites; eight of which are in the original Crichiebank House with the remaining thirteen being entirely newly built. Architects Jenkins & Marr, and Quantity Surveyors McCue & Porter designed the office units in different sizes to suit client requirements.

The Crichiebank Business Centre has just over 6,000 square feet of floor space across two floors available to let; with companies being able to take offices of varying sizes from 190 square feet to 470 square feet depending on their requirements. The rental fee for the offices includes rent, electricity, cleaning, fire and security alarms, use of common areas, building insurance and telephone answering in the company name.

Chris continues, "Businesses are able to take office space on flexible terms with the minimum lease period being just one month. This means that as well as being ideal for new and growing businesses the space is also of interest to project based teams and those wishing to test the water prior to establishing a permanent base for their business in Inverurie. Crichiebank Business Centre is situated in a pleasant location within easy reach of the main road. The centre has extensive grounds with ample on site car parking; something that is often hard to find."

As well as office space the Crichiebank Business Centre also offers conference and meeting room facilities; these facilities are also available to companies which are not based in Crichiebank. The centre also boasts category 6e network cabling and a Siemens Voice over IP phone system.

Enterprise has had an innovative central heating system installed in the Crichiebank business centre. An environmentally friendly boiler was chosen to heat the business centre. Rather than fossil fuel the boiler uses locally produced biomass chip. Biomass heating is practical as well as economically and environmentally beneficial. The installation of the environmentally friendly heating system is another example of Enterprise’s commitment to supporting local businesses; the chip which is used is produced just 10 miles away from the Crichiebank business centre by Bryan Harper Haulage.