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A Highland property developer, a tobacco giant and a 125-year lease: Who owns the St Giles Centre in Elgin?

Moray Council is currently chasing the Elgin shopping centre for £750,000 in unpaid business rates.

St Giles Centre close-up of sign.
The future of the St Giles Centre in uncertain. Image: DC Thomson

Doubts have been raised about the future of the St Giles Centre in Elgin after it emerged it owes £750,000 in unpaid business rates.

Moray Council is now taking legal action against the business to chase the money owed to the public purse.

It is understood the hefty bill has been racked up over several years with the local authority saying it has “exhausted reasonable avenues” to recoup the cash.

The Press and Journal has investigated who owns the St Giles Centre in Elgin, and uncovered the pension pot of a multi-national tobacco giant is ultimately the landlord of a 125-year lease not due to expire until 2139.

Who owns St Giles Centre?

The ownership of the St Giles Centre is slightly complex in that the building and the land it is built on are owned separately.

David Cameron, a director of Aviemore-based Upland Developments, is the sole director of the company that runs the day-to-day business of the shopping centre.

St Giles Shopping Centre Holdings Ltd was established in November 2012.

David Cameron in suit at table looking off camera.
David Cameron, pictured in 2010. Image: DC Thomson

Just a year later another firm Mr Cameron was a director of, Upland Investments, and Robertson Property secured planning permission for an ambitious £7 million expansion of the shopping centre.

However, Upland Investments folded in 2015 and the plans never came to fruition.

Data compiled by the Press and Journal’s Elgin town centre tracker this year revealed the shopping centre was exactly half empty, with 13 units vacant and 13 occupied.

What else is David Cameron involved in?

Mr Cameron, 81, was listed in The Sunday Times’ Rich List in 2009 with a family fortune of £38 million at the time, which earned him the 1,477th spot on the chart.

He is currently one of four directors of Upland Developments, which is known for commercial and residential developments across Aviemore, Inverness and the rest of the Highlands.

The firm has owned The Ironworks in Inverness and previously the Myrtlefield Shopping Centre in Aviemore.

David Cameron was previously a director of Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

Last year the firm got backing from the Cairngorms National Park to build an 83-bedroom hotel in Aviemore alongside six shops and 22 self-catering apartments.

However, the plans have been on the desk of Scottish Government planners since May 2023 due to flooding concerns.

Mr Cameron was also a director of Inverness Caledonian Thistle from November 2019 to March 2022, during the time Scot Gardiner was chief executive of the club.

Shoppers outside St Giles Centre.
The St Giles Centre is just one of David Cameron’s business interests. Image: DC Thomson

However, he remains a director of ICT Battery Storage Ltd and another company, Inverness Caledonian Thistle Properties Ltd, which is understood to own land near the stadium.

Mr Cameron is also a director of Scotia Homes and this year another company he is a director of, Camlin, bought the the former site of Inverness College after UHI had been trying to sell the plot for three years. 

Tobacco giants are landlords of St Giles Centre

While David Cameron is the sole director of St Giles Shopping Centre Holdings Ltd, the company does not own the land the building is on.

Title deeds held by the National Registers of Scotland, and seen by the Press and Journal, show the proprietor of the land is the pension fund of the firm formerly known as Imperial Tobacco.

The company, which has been known as Imperial Brands since 2016, owns lines including Lambert and Butler, Regal, Embassy and Rizla.

Shoppers inside the St Giles Centre.
Shoppers inside the St Giles Centre in 2013. Image: DC Thomson

The documents show the entry from Imperial was first lodged with the National Registers of Scotland in March 2014.

The same month St Giles Shopping Centre Holdings Ltd entered into a new 125-year lease for the land, which is not due to expire until March 27, 2139.

Documents published when the land was listed for auction last year show the annual lease for the ground is £217,800.

Online auction specialist Acuitus listed the land for sale last year with a guide price of £1.15 million.

However, the lot was withdrawn from sale twice before any bids could be lodged.

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