Balfour Beatty has landed a £162m contract to build the long-awaited Dunard Centre, Edinburgh’s first purpose-built concert hall in more than a century.

The deal was sealed after the Scottish Government stepped in with a £20m rescue package for the project, which finally moves forward more than six years after first winning planning.

Sir Robert McAlpine had originally been lined up for the job under a preconstruction deal signed four years ago. But the contractor exited last spring when costs ballooned from the £45m first envisaged by architects Chipperfield and Reiach & Hall.

Balfour Beatty was then brought in under an early contractor involvement agreement to thrash out the build strategy for the tricky city-centre site behind St Andrew Square.

Commissioned by IMPACT Scotland, the landmark venue will give the Scottish Chamber Orchestra a permanent home and form a major base for the Edinburgh International Festival.

Render of the auditorium in Dunard Centre

The 1,000-seat hall will feature a complex double basement, five-storey steel frame and intricate oak-panelled interior designed for world-class acoustics.

Work will ramp up in the coming weeks, with completion slated for 2029.

As part of the works, Balfour Beatty will construct a five-storey steel frame with an envelope façade of pre-cast concrete panels. The high-quality internal finishes will include bespoke solid oak panelling to the hall to enhance the acoustic experience.

At its peak, the project will employ around 200 people and support five new apprenticeships alongside a major SME supply chain programme.

Nick Rowan, managing director for Balfour Beatty in Scotland, said: “We are proud to be entrusted with delivering what will become a nationally significant cultural venue in the heart of Edinburgh and have worked meticulously to plan every stage of this complex build, from construction logistics in a tightly constrained site, to the precision needed to achieve world-class acoustic performance.