Retail giant Next has signalled its commitment to Dundee city centre by renewing the lease for its Overgate store until 2024.
The move is part of its bid for planning permission for a major new £5.2 million Next Home and Garden outlet at Kingsway West Retail Park.
The retailer would vacate its existing unit in Gallagher Retail Park, next to the city centre, under a restructuring of its operations in Dundee.
All jobs at Gallagher would be moved to Kingsway West where 125 new posts would be added, giving Next a total workforce in the city of 258.
The company is confident a replacement tenant can be attracted to its Gallagher property and that retailing in central Dundee will not be weakened.
Next outlined its intentions in conjunction with Ares Management, which manages funds that acquired Kingsway West in December 2015 in a £74m investment.
They have submitted a planning application to Dundee City Council for the expansion and construction of a Next Home and Garden format store at Kingsway West.
It will combine extended home, garden centre, conservatory and fashion ranges as well as a coffee shop.
Next has 10 such stores operating in England, and Dundee is one of a number in the company’s pipeline.
It would be built on the site of the former Harveys Furniture store, which has lain vacant for two years, and will bring approximately 125 new jobs to the city.
Wilson Lamont of Ares Management said: “We understand what it takes for retailers to remain successful in the face of changing consumer demands.”
He continued: “We believe that its newest store location at Kingsway West will deliver a superior shopping experience, while also providing much needed investment and job opportunities to Dundee.”
A spokesman for Next said: “This is a major commitment to Dundee and accords with our strategy of trading a single dominant store in the city centre together with a dominant edge of town store on a retail park.”
Stressing its commitment to the city centre and to give Dundee an enforceable position, he added: “We have applied for planning consent on the basis that we can only trade the new store in Kingsway West whilst we also trade in the city centre, where we have recently renewed our Overgate lease to 2024.”
The retailer said its proposed actions would secure its future in Dundee well into the next decade.
The company’s bid to open a Home and Garden store at Kingsway West in 2013 was rejected by the council over concerns about its impact on the city centre retailing.
