In the late eighties, Craig Mackay began his architecture career in his home town of Thurso straight from school.
But he did a 180 career-wise by leaving to become a police officer.
For almost a decade, Craig patrolled the streets in the then Grampian and Lothian & Border forces.
In 2000, married with three young kids, he gave up crime fighting and returned to his first career plan.
His architectural practice CM Design was born in a bedroom at the former Pinefield Hotel (Craig had transformed it into an office).
He began as a sole trader but the business soon grew, eventually recruiting staff and transforming all the former bedrooms in the building into offices.
As the business continued to grow, he took a bold step and purchased his first office building in Elgin.
Interestingly, the transaction took place during the 2008 banking crash.
St. Brendan’s House remains the company’s Elgin headquarters to this day.
And they have a branch in Nairn which opened in 2010.
It is fair to say Craig has been on an eventful journey to opening up the business.
Craig said: “I always wanted to get into architecture.
“Craig Robertson of the then HIE Business Gateway and the local Bank of Scotland helped me get started.
“Business Gateway assisted with my rent for the first year. I remember how helpful that was when facing the dreaded encounter with the overheads of business.”
What did Craig learn from surviving recessions and banking crashes?
For Craig, diversity has been key in ensuring his business continues to thrive.
The business provides services like technical drawing and building warrants.
He works with a wide range of clients from distilleries to local businesses and self builders.
He remembers getting to the keys to his current Elgin office in the backdrop of the global economy being in crisis.
‘It was a frightening weekend’
He recalled: “This was a frightening weekend – we had just received the keys and building work across Moray seemed to stop almost overnight.
“Michelle Anderson was our Bank of Scotland relationship manager back then. She still is to this day.
“She helped us navigate the conversion of the office at St Brendans over those recession years.
“Interestingly, Michelle was to offer the same proactive help during the Covid years when we developed the upper floor of St Brendan’s into serviced self-catering accommodation.”
He added: “During the height of the housing boom, it was too easy to be tempted to only concentrate on high profit, bespoke projects and particularly with developers who were flipping new houses for substantial profit in that decade.
“We resisted this temptation and continued working for all manner of client and all sizes of project and providing a public service when other practices perhaps did not.”
In the last few years, his sons Bailey and Finn have joined the business.
He is also encouraged by the courage shown by people transforming Elgin town centre buildings.
Why Elgin should drive to become a sought after ‘university city’
Craig Mackay believes Elgin should embrace its position as a “university city” to attract droves of students to live in the town centre and spend their cash.
He thinks if more sought after courses were on offer at UHI Moray it would benefit Elgin.
He could see empty spaces in the upper floors on the Elgin High Street potentially redeveloped into student accommodation.
It comes at a time when UHI Moray is struggling with job and course cuts.
Meanwhile, they previously had led a Moray Growth Deal project to build a Moray Aerospace, Advanced Technology and Innovation Campus which appears to be scrapped.
The project was designed to entice a skilled workforce to move here and retain local talent.
UHI Moray passed responsibility for leading the project to the central UHI office in Inverness, before pulling its £3 million funding entirely.
Craig said: ” At the moment, development costs to convert or refurbish these derelict properties far outweigh the resale of landlord rent that could be attracted in this area.
“However knowing that student accommodation can attract over £300 per room and is often Government funded, this is a no brainer if we could just get more sought after courses offered within the current UHI campus.
“A room in Edinburgh for my daughter at university costs over £700 per month.”
He also believes a change of tack from trying to attract large retail into the town would transform the town centre.
Craig said: “Elgin has more merit and aesthetic value than even the university town of St Andrews.
“Just imagine every flat above every shop filled all year round and with tourists during summer – the retail landscape would be transformed and the city centre would become alive again morning, noon and night.
“Moray is surely one of the best places for a student to come to – we have the potential for great nightlife, eateries, we have the wild outdoors, mountains, surf, snow, cities nearby, access to the Highlands and all major cities by air – only the variety of degree courses are missing.”
Read more about Elgin businesses
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- How an Elgin hairdresser transformed a former Spar store into an inviting and relaxing modern salon
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