EdFringe venue Summerhall goes on the market

Multi-arts centre Summerhall, one of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s leading venues, is being put up for sale.

Current owners Oesselmann Estate Limited has announced its intention to sell the site, which was converted from a veterinary college in 2011 and attracts more than a million visitors annually.

Summerhall consists of seven buildings spread over 2.025 acres and is currently home to more than 110 occupiers, including the Royal Dick Bar, Pickering’s Gin, Storytelling PR and Summerhall Management Ltd, which runs the venue’s arts programme alongside charity Summerhall Arts.

Robert McDowell, founder and director of Summerhall Management Ltd, said: “My hope is that with new owners buying the building, Summerhall will be strengthened for the future and continue its miraculously extraordinary activities.”

A statement announcing Oesselmann Estate Limited’s intention to sell said that planned events, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024, would go ahead and that all current leases would remain in place with the option to extend.

There is doubt over Summerhall’s long-term future as a multi-arts centre, however, with a brochure produced by property consultants CuthbertWhite calling the sale “a unique opportunity to acquire an income-producing, mixed-use estate” that offers “significant redevelopment and refurbishment potential for a variety of uses subject to planning”.

Stephen Kay of CuthbertWhite said: “We are excited to be bringing this to the open market and we expect considerable interest in this property from a wide range of domestic and international parties.”