Andy Hadden: this is groundbreaking
Scotland’s latest leisure attraction has been a 12-year labour of love for Andy Hadden, writes TERRY MURDEN
Construction workers were putting the finishing touches to the roads and car park as photographers, reporters and other visitors were given a first glimpse of Scotland’s latest leisure attraction. Nestled snugly into a former quarry beneath a neat row of modern houses high on the clifftop, a wave pool the size of three football pitches was being prepared to welcome the first of an expected 160,000 annual water sports enthusiasts.
Andy Hadden, the mastermind behind the Lost Shore Surf Resort, is relieved and excited that an idea hatched 12 years ago has finally come to fruition. After the long process of securing land, getting planning permission and raising money, he can focus on those who will be using the facility at Ratho, west of Edinburgh, not least the cream of the surfing community.
“We had the head of the World Surf League here saying there is nothing like this anywhere in terms of the quality of the waves,” he says. “The world qualifying series is looking for us to run a competition next year.”
There is also talk of it being a training ground for future Olympians who, he says, would struggle to find anywhere better to hone their skills.
Beyond the serious and professional, Lost Shore is for the leisure user and the new marketing team has sold half a million pounds of surf bookings, with many visitors planning to stay in the newly-built lodges, equipped with hotel-standard fittings, overlooking the giant waves.
The project is something of a gift to Hadden’s home city where he attended Merchiston School. His father Frank, the former Scotland rugby coach, was the PE teacher.
“I grew up in a sporting environment, with sports facilities on my doorstep and this is a way of giving something back,” he says.
The seed of the idea was planted by an email circulated by his boss at the property consultancy Colliers International. Hadden was working as an insolvency surveyor in its Birmingham office.
“You didn’t want so see me walking through the door,” he jokes. “It was a good learning experience but a a grim industry, dealing with businesses going under.”
The email referred to a feasibility study for a wave park in Bristol and at the time he thought the technology was still some years away. However, as a surfer himself, his interest sparked a trip to the Basque country to see the machinery in action. “I saw something that I knew would change the face of surfing.”
Surfers demonstrating their skills at Lost Shore (pic: Terry Murden)
After a brief step-off into property investment, buying low-risk commercial assets, he decided to pursue the wave project back in Scotland.
“I thought that if I was going to do it then it would have to be an institutional grade investment proposition,” he says. That meant ensuring he had security over the land and that the facility would meet other demands for accommodation, food and drink.
In 2021 he agreed a £28m sale and leaseback on the land with the BAE Pension Fund Trustees which gave him a 150 year lease on an attractive rental yield of just 3.1%. It’s what he calls “the magic sauce”.
The deal enabled him to get bank funding at favourable borrowing rates and he raised £60m to fund the development. Among the investors were the state-owned Scottish National Investment Bank, Oaknorth Bank, and about 50 local supporters including Joe Frankel, owner of Vegware, Tim Wilks of bowling alley operator Lane7, and David Murray junior, the property developer.
Hadden will be settling into a new role, heading up its growth and partnership division that is still being worked on. Meanwhile, he’s enthused by more international attention and the prospect of another high profile investor to be unveiled before the end of this month.
“The US equity markets are monitoring us as they see resorts like this being developed around the world,” he says, adding that others sites are being earmarked in Manchester and London.
As for the Bristol venture, it opened in 2019, though on a smaller scale. “Bristol is a surfing facility with a restaurant and safari tents, whereas we are a resort, like a mini-Center Parcs,” he says.
Whether by coincidence or design, as the media gathered in Ratho the owner of Center Parcs was announcing a new village to be built in the Borders, 50 miles away. It may represent some competition in the growing adventure holiday market, though the level of water-based activity is on a different scale. Lost Shore offers a 250-metre beachfront and over 20 wave types. Both facilities will target families, but Lost Shore will pick up the surfers.
“This is totally unique, groundbreaking,” says Hadden. “If the city embraces this it can be transformational for the leisure sector.”
PERSONAL CHECKLIST
Birthplace: Edinburgh
Age: 42
Education: Merchiston School, Heriot-Watt University (sports science and psychology, plus a masters in real estate management)
Career highlights: Colliers International (insolvency surveyor), property investment, business owner
Other business interests?
I own a flexible workspace business in North Berwick
Other skills?
As a schoolboy I played chess for Scotland, and also played rugby for Scotland U21s
If you could invite three people to join you at Lost Shore who would you choose?
Prince William… because he would love it
Gerard Butler (actor)…. he surfs
JK Rowling…because she would understand that this goes beyond surfing and is about community and culture.
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