A shipping firm has revealed details of a £1 million warehousing and office development at Montrose Port.
Rix Shipping, which has operated from the Angus town for almost half a century, is set to tear down old shed buildings at the docks and replace them with new purpose-built facilities.
The “speculative” Meridian Street development will stretch to 30,000ft2 and feature a suite of offices and a bulk storage facility for cargo arriving at the port by sea.
Planning consent has been granted by Angus Council, and demolition of the existing structure will begin next month.
The new build is expected to be ready to take its first customers by August.
James Doyle, managing director of Rix Shipping, said he hoped the new facility would help rejuvenate the area and attract further economic activity and jobs to the port.
The Rix investment follows a transformation of the docks’ fortunes in recent years after millions were spent on upgrading deep-water berths on both sides of the river.
The change has seen annual cargo volumes landed at the port increase to two million tonnes for the first time.
“As a company we have operated in Montrose for nearly 50 years and we have seen the fortunes of the town change over that time,” Mr Doyle said.
“It has been through some great times and some not so great times but we like to think we have been a constant feature of the quayside area and played our part in making Montrose a thriving place to do business.
“The town is seeing a lot of investment and that is fantastic.
“We want to be part of that and to play our role in ensuring there is a buoyant local economy and that is why we have chosen to investment this money now.
“We think a lot of companies will be interested in locating their port operation here, which is why we decided to invest.”
Rix said the redevelopment had created a flood of industry inquiries.