Contractors prepare their bids for first phase of flagship development.

Bovis Lend Lease, Laing O’Rourke and InteriorExterior are rolling up their sleeves in readiness to bid for one of the country’s biggest urban regeneration schemes, worth £400 million.

The Quartermile development, in the centre of Edinburgh, will include more than 650 new homes, a five-star hotel, 35,000m2 of office space and 8000m2 of restaurants and bars. The eight-hectare plot was previously the site of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

The initial contract, known as ‘project one’, is worth more than £50 million; the brief includes building two residential blocks of 12 and 13 storeys. Design for the development has been overseen by architect Lord Foster, with many Scottish firms, such as Richard Murphy and the Hurd Rolland Partnership involved in the project.

Work is expected to commence towards the end of 2005.