Rutherglen’s Lloyd Street Industrial Estate set for investment after being snapped up in seven-figure deal

Family-owned Spectrum Properties has acquired the heritable interest of the 30-year-old industrial estate at Farme Cross, which is fully occupied by 22 tenants, from Hericksa for around £3 million.

Spectrum says it provides high-end business-centre space, industrial workshops and units, warehousing and manufacturing facilities and secure open-yard storage along with business support services in and around Glasgow.

It owns some 700 commercial properties across the city, comprising 70 per cent of its group holdings, and it has also converted sites such as Hillhead High School in Cecil Street in Glasgow, the former Hydepark Public School in Springburn, and Shettleston Public Baths.

Additionally, it converted art collector and city benefactor Sir William Burrell’s Great Western Road mansion and is currently engaged in the retention and development of the former Golfhill School near Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

LSIE hosts a range of businesses, including a window-manufacturer, a scaffolder, and a company that refurbishes camper vans.

Spectrum MD Bill Roddie said regarding the latest deal: “LSIE is a good fit for our portfolio, and it is our intention to invest around £250,000 to upgrade both the existing road network within the estate and to reassure our tenants with the installation of security gates.

“By making LSIE a more safe and secure place in which to do business we hope to retain all our existing tenants – and to attract yet more in the future.”

Spectrum focuses primarily on commercial property, but in recent years it has increasingly moved into residential development.

It says the Shakespeare Building in North Kelvinside is “the latest in a long line of architecturally significant properties” that the firm has seen kept in the city’s heritage portfolio, using “advanced” preservation and restoration techniques such as façade-retention.

Spectrum, which is based at Strathclyde Business Centre, also says it directly employs 75 people, with the same number of sub-contractors – and it is actively recruiting in tandem with rapid expansion. Established by Mr Roddie in 1988, the company now has a portfolio valuation of £60m and turns over more than £5m.

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