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Summerhall’s sale could devastate Edinburgh’s arts scene, say creative leaders
Arts hub described as heart of city’s fringe advertised for redevelopment after benefactor outvoted on family trust
Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The GuardianTo the shock of its artists and users, it emerged earlier this month that the family trust which owns and heavily subsidises Summerhall, Oesselman Estates, has put it on the market after McDowell’s brothers decided its losses could not be sustained. The property firm marketing the sprawling site, which includes a pub and brewery, a gin distillery and a technology incubator which nurtured travel portal SkyScanner, as “a rare opportunity” to buy “a thriving mixed-use investment with extensive refurbishment and redevelopment potential”. Now home to 110 tenants paying £1.1m a year in rent, the 130,000 square foot site includes the Edwardian-era veterinary school complete with its dissection theatres and laboratories, a church and a seven-storey modernist block which houses tech startups.
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