Edinburgh is close to getting its biggest office letting of the year, after BlackRock placed more than 70,000 sq ft of space under offer in the city centre.

The financial services giant is believed to have decided on Scottish Widows’ Exchange Place in the Scottish capital’s Exchange district. The move will come as a boost for Scottish Widows, which completed the scheme in 2009, and for the city more generally, because it will result in more than 250 new jobs being created in Edinburgh.

A deal, likely to be at a rent of up to £25 / sq ft, would mean the Exchange Place One building is now mostly under offer.

BlackRock is currently based at nearby Torphichen Street, but there is no expansion space available.

Next door to the Scottish Widows scheme, investment manager Brewin Dolphin has taken 48,000 sq ft of space at the council’s Atria development, which was also earmarked by BlackRock for its office search.

Jones Lang LaSalle, Cuthbert White, and Cushman & Wakefield are agents on Exchange Place; CBRE advises BlackRock.