Construction will start next week on a £14m development at Ratho Park close to Edinburgh Airport, bucking the national trend of a slowdown in the construction sector.

The office development by The EDI Group is expected to take around 12 months, with the 97-bed hotel opening its doors to the first guests in September 2009.

The £8m hotel is set in landscaped grounds and is being built by EDI for Travelodge. It will offer a restaurant and café/bar, car parking for 70 cars and is expected to generate around 25 jobs.

Designed to achieve a BREEAM "excellent" rating, the 22,000 sq ft office is the first speculative commercial development in west Edinburgh for two years.

The £6m, three-storey offices represents the second phase of EDI's successful development at Ratho Park and will complete the business park in that area. The first, now fully occupied phase was completed in 2005.

Conveniently located two minutes from the M8/M9 interchange and just five minutes from Edinburgh International Airport, the new offices are expected to appeal to companies requiring excellent transport links.

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Speaking on behalf of The EDI Group, Neil Johnson, Senior Development Surveyor, said how pleased they were to announce the start of construction.

"This site start reflects our confidence in this area of the city, where so many other developments from a new Forth Crossing to the airport expansion, are already in the pipeline.

"We expect that the Travelodge will help to meet the city-wide shortage of low cost, well located hotel accommodation. And we believe that the offices will prove attractive to companies looking for good road and air links both within Scotland and beyond."

Extending the company's commitment to high environmental standards, the offices will be marketed through a paperless marketing campaign, believed to be the first in Scotland.

Neil Johnson said: "The office development will meet the very highest environmental standards and we're extending this commitment into a paperless marketing campaign. Instead of the usual glossy, colour brochures produced by agents, we will market the offices entirely by email and web. The property industry in Scotland is usually slow to embrace change but we believe this is a step in the right direction."

Both developments are expected to deliver benefits to the local economy, during the construction phase and post-completion.

Architects 3D Reid has designed both buildings for EDI; their contemporary design features a restrained palette of stone, render, zinc and glass.

The offices are being jointly marketed by DTZ and Jones Lang LaSalle. Muir Construction Limited has won the contract to build both the offices and hotel.

(GK/JM)