Operations of Glover House

Tender description

Following the appointment of new directors to GHT Ltd in 2024, Aberdeen City Council (on behalf of the Trust) are seeking to find a tenant operator for Glover House and wish to engage the market around options for the future use of the building. Lot 1: Background Fraserburgh born Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911) has been described as the founding father of Japan's economic miracle. His contribution to the country's industrialisation includes the introduction of the first railway locomotive and first mint; mechanisation of coalmines; the founding of the Japanese Navy; and modernisation of the shipbuilding industry. His own company grew into Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd . He was known as the 'Scottish Samurai' and was the first non-Japanese person to be awarded the prestigious Order of the Rising Sun. He died on 16 December 1911 in Tokyo. Glover House Located in the suburb’s Balgownie Road, Braehead House (known as Glover House) was purchased by the Glover family in 1864 and Thomas Blake Glover's parents lived there until their deaths. The house was purchased by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd in 1996 and gifted to Grampian Regional Council. Due to local government reorganisation, the house became the property of Aberdeen City Council the same year, and in 1997 it was transferred to the Grampian-Japan Trust. The Trust converted part of the house to a museum about Thomas Blake Glover's life. In 2015, ownership of the house transferred to Glover House Trustees Ltd (GHT Ltd) when GHT Ltd became sole trustee of the Grampian-Japan Trust in 2015. Aberdeen City Council is sole shareholder of GHT Ltd. The purposes of the Trust (established in 1996) all relate in some way to Thomas Blake Glover and/or Japan. Project Outline & Aims Through this exercise the Council and GHT Ltd would intend to gauge the market for prospective operators of Glover House to ensure the long-term viability of the building and the continuation of Thomas Blake Gover’s legacy. It is anticipated that this exercise will identify the process to secure a new operator (i.e. commercial let, tender for service, property sale/ transfer etc.) and inform what the conditions and expectations are of service to be provided by the operator. It is a key element that the operator would have sufficient capability and the capacity to improve the scope for new business initiatives and promote Glover House as a key cultural asset of Aberdeen, meeting the feu condition and Trust purposes quoted above.