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Glasgow City Colleges: SPV Management

Vercity delivers the Management Services Agreement (MSA) on the City of Glasgow College project for Glasgow Learning Quarter Limited, ensuring compliance is met and that the facilities management provider delivers its contract obligations.

Sector

Education

Key Stakeholders

City of Glasgow College on behalf of Glasgow Learning Quarter Limited

Original Investment Value

£229m

The project

City of Glasgow College comprises two campuses: City and Riverside. Over 40,000 students attend the college, across 500 learning spaces. The project commenced works in June 2013 with Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd leading the construction. Glasgow Learning Quarter is the special purpose vehicle (SPV) company working in partnership with City of Glasgow College and FES FM, the facilities management provider, to deliver this £229m twin-site project.

Approach

Vercity delivers the MSA for the project, with a particular focus on contract compliance to ensure the facilities management provider delivered its contractual obligations. Through proactive collaboration and liaison contractors, stakeholders and other third parties, we help optimise contract performance to achieve positive outcomes that increase the net asset value.

Glasgow City Colleges
Glasgow City Colleges

Process

By aligning the terms on which the FM provider does business, we help ensure that operations run smoothly. To ensure compliance, we continuously review costs and assess quality and service delivery, benchmarking actual performance delivery against contract requirements. In using our market-leading reporting tools, we helped ensure that budgets were being met and that progress is being made towards performance targets.

The result

The project was completed in August 2016 and the college opened its doors to students in the 2016/17 academic year. Glasgow City College is one of the largest specialist college buildings in Europe and has an industry-standard TV and radio studio, a fully equipped aircraft training cabin and an industrial-sized construction space. It also has a craft and built environment space, a commercial hair salon, a restaurant, 16 professional cookery kitchens and one of the most modern working ship engine rooms in the UK.

Project impact

As Scotland’s first super college, it offers 2,000 courses from Access Level to Masters. To date, the college has delivered over 420 modern apprenticeships, 3000 work experience placements and 1000 jobs. Our SPV management services deliver a positive impact for Glasgow College and the public sector, achieving cost consistency and maintaining investor returns.

‘‘Vercity is maintaining firm control of the current Covid-related issues while sustaining open dialogue between the parties. With the Vercity resources in place, I am confident that we can ride out this storm and return to business as usual in a stronger place.’’

David MacDonald
Programme Director, Scottish Futures Trust

Meet your contract obligations, deliver with confidence

Learn more about Vercity’s operations management capabilities.

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