The site of the original BBC Beechgrove Garden has a new owner after its investment interest was snapped up in an auction.

The site is home to BBC Aberdeen's studios and is leased by the BBC on a 25 year term after it undertook a sale and leaseback in 2004.

Property consultants FG Burnett secured the investment for an undisclosed sum on behalf of a private client in a Cushman & Wakefield auction. The vendor was London property company, Shardell Limited.

FG Burnett director, David Macleod, said: "The new owner was attracted by the quality of the location, the modern building and a long term lease to the BBC."

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The site on Beechgrove Terrace was formerly the home of Thomas Scott Sutherland, the famous architect and businessman who sold the house to the BBC in 1937, 14 years after the BBC first started broadcasting in Aberdeen in 1923.

Following the sale of Beechgrove, Scott Sutherland moved to Garthdee House with the long term intention of bequeathing the site to the School of Architecture, which opened in 1956.

The BBC have now been broadcasting from Beechgrove for more than 70 years and it was the site of the original Beechgrove Garden, a small garden at the rear of the house made famous by the television programme of the same name.

The site was redeveloped in 2000 by the BBC and Barratt to provide new flats and a new building for the BBC with state of the art offices and broadcasting studios.

FG Burnett have their own association with the building - chairman Ken Matheson and managing director Angus MacCuish, both from the Western Isles, are regular visitors to Beechgrove for Gaelic broadcasting programmes.

(GK/BMcC)