John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, today (Monday 19 April 2010) visited Dundee to officially open Scotland’s largest speculative office development in a generation.

Mr Swinney addressed civic leaders and guests from Dundee’s property industry at the opening ceremony of River Court at the £18million Dundee One development, built by one of Scotland’s leading property companies Unicorn Property Group.

Headquartered at City Quay in Dundee, Unicorn was recently shortlisted for best Scottish Property Company at the 2010 Estates Gazette Awards in recognition of its significant contribution to the regeneration of Dundee’s waterfront.

River Court and its neighbouring City Court building together form the state-of-the-art 100,000sq ft eco-friendly Dundee One development which provides spectacular views both across the city and the River Tay.
City Court was last month handed over to the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) to serve as a 
purpose-built forensic facility for its DNA database, biology and chemistry laboratories, fingerprint and scene examination units.
Unicorn specialises in contemporary new build properties, sympathetic regeneration and heritage restoration as well as first-class commercial developments both across Dundee and Scotland-wide.
Unicorn received the Dundee Civic Trust Award in November 2009 for outstanding contribution to the city for its magnificent Clock Tower residential conversion.

Mr Swinney said: “Dundee is fast becoming one of the UK's most vibrant destinations for business, study and leisure.

“The Dundee One development addresses a shortage of high quality city centre office space, and contributes significantly to the regeneration of the waterfront - it therefore plays an important role in helping the city to realise its ambitions and achieve important economic growth. It is an honour to open River Court and signal the completion of the Dundee One development today.”

Tim Allan, director of Unicorn Property Group, added: “Today marks a significant move for business in Dundee and Scotland and we are delighted that Mr Swinney is here to help celebrate the opening of a development which we hope can play a part in the future of Dundee’s economic prosperity as we come out of a recession.

“We hope that by providing high quality office accommodation with breathtaking views and top class facilities, Dundee One will showcase to blue chip businesses the capacity of waterfront location to revive itself as a hub for enterprise in Scotland.”