Tender
Scottish pension fund tenders design and build of Portsmouth warehouses
By Staff Writer | 26 August 2026
Glasgow City Council, acting as administering authority for the Strathclyde Pension Fund, has tendered the design and construction of five single storey warehouse units at Centennial Park, Airspeed Road, Portsmouth. The notice was published on 25 August 2026 at 12:20pm under the identifier 080809-2026 and gives a value of 8,000,000 pounds. The tender period closes at midday on 12 October 2026.
The units are described as ranging generally between 8 metres and 12 metres to the underside of the haunch, with a gross internal area of approximately 53,000 square feet and internal mezzanine office accommodation. The notice does not make clear whether that floor area is the total across the five units or the figure for each, and it is left as published rather than divided.
External works are required and the notice lists hard standings, car parking, landscaping, drainage, fencing and street furniture, external lighting, electric vehicle chargers and main service connections. The list is expressly stated to be capable of extending beyond those items, which is a scope opening rather than a scope definition.
The counterparty is a Scottish local authority
The notice is explicit that the successful bidder will enter into the contract for the works with the council. The procurement is being conducted by DTZ Investors for the council as administering authority for the fund, and Quartz Project Services Limited are named as the project managers for the project. The review body named on the notice is Glasgow Sheriff Court.
For a contractor building in Hampshire that combination is worth reading twice. The employer is a local authority some 500 miles from the site, acting in a capacity it holds for a pension fund rather than for its own account, and the body named for review of the procurement sits in Scotland. The notice does not name the form of building contract, and it does not state the governing law of the works contract, so neither can be assumed from the identity of the buyer.
What the fund is and why it is buying
The notice records that the Strathclyde Pension Fund is part of the Local Government Pension Scheme, that it is one of eleven such funds in Scotland and one of around a hundred across the United Kingdom. It does not state the fund's interest in the site or what the completed units are for beyond their description as warehouse units with mezzanine offices.
What the description does say is that this is speculative industrial floor space rather than a building fitted out for a named occupier: there is no tenant named, no fit out described and no occupier requirement in the scope. Specification and programme on a job of that kind are set by the developer alone rather than by a tenant's agreement for lease, so the tender documents will settle both and no third party sits behind them.
Procedure and timetable
The procedure is a restricted procedure, so there is a selection stage before tenders are invited and the field will be shortlisted before any pricing is submitted. Requests to participate are due by midday on 12 October 2026, which is forty eight days after publication. The notice gives no award date and no contract start date.
A contractor considering the job should ask three things before committing bid resource: the form of contract and its governing law, whether the 53,000 square feet is the total or the unit area, and how far the external works scope may extend given the express reservation in the notice. All three are answerable from the tender documents and none is answerable from the notice.