Work starts on £60m Scottish Xscape

Construction work on Scotland’s first indoor real snow slope is underway at Braehead, on the south bank of the river Clyde near Glasgow.

The £60m Xscape Braehead is a joint venture between X-Leisure – the branded leisure property arm of Capital & Regional – and Capital Shopping Centres, which hopes to attract around three million visitors a year to the slope.

The scheme is part of the Renfrew Riverside Partnership regeneration programme and includes a 170m snow slope and a 50m beginners’ slope – powered by 16 snow guns generating 1,500 tonnes of real snow.

Xscape will be managed by X-Leisure and will also host a multiplex cinema, 24 lanes of bowling, extreme sports including climbing walls and aerial assault course and a number of branded restaurants and bars.

PY Gerbeau, chief executive of X-Leisure, said: “We are creating the ultimate day out and a fantastic entertainment experience for families, individuals and businesses seeking corporate and team building events and tourists for Scotland.

“Commercial confidence in the Xscape brand has been supported by many of our existing tenants and partners from our other Xscape venues and by an exceptional high level of interest even before construction begun.”

Xscape Braehead – expected to open in spring 2006 – will become the UK’s third Xscape centre, alongside existing sites in Milton Keynes and Castleford.

X-Leisure expects the two properties to have attracted more than 9.5 million visitors during 2004.