The site of the former Levi’s factory in Dundee is set to be transformed into a Lexus car dealership.
Planning permission has been granted to car dealership company Eastern Western Motor Group (EWMG) to redevelop the Dunsinane Avenue site into a major Lexus, Toyota and used car development.
Under the plans green-lit by Dundee City Council, the site will undergo a £10 million facelift and will sell electric and hybrid powered Lexus and Toyota branded cars.
Car Deal Warehouse, a used car supermarket, will also operate on the site.
The dealership is scheduled to open in late 2023.
Dundee chosen for ‘low carbon credentials’
In the planning application, EWMG – which also owns the Barnett’s dealership franchises at Riverside – outlined how Lexus will be a new brand for the city.
Dundee, the application stated, was preferred over Aberdeen by Lexus UK owing to the city’s “persuasive low carbon and green energy strategy credentials”.
The combined Lexus and Toyota car dealership will focus on the “move to the low carbon future” which is an “ethos at the heart” of both companies’ futures.
New jobs will be created
The car dealership will create 50 new jobs, whilst the associated workshops, offices, and sales and management division will create further job opportunities.
In total, EWMG believes up to 100 new jobs will be created as a result of the redevelopment.
The company is also planning to forge a relationship with Dundee and Angus College and the associated Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc.
Keith Duncan, EWMG’s managing director and former Whitfield High School pupil, said: “As a Dundonian, I am always excited about developments in my home town.
“The new £10m project will be an extension to the Barnetts brand, a name with 58 years of heritage in the city.
“We were also very impressed with the planning department’s understanding of how the Lexus and Toyota brands share the environmental goals of local government.”
No permanent use since factory closure
The Levi’s factory on Dunsinane Avenue closed in 2002 and in the intervening years hosted a range of organisations including foodbanks, church groups and community projects.
The previous owners – Aydya – had marketed the site for two decades without finding a suitable new user and decided to sell following demolition of the factory in late 2021.
EWMG purchased the site in December last year.
At its height in the mid-90s, nearly 600 people worked at the Levi’s site, and one million pairs of jeans were leaving the plant every week.
The factory’s closure 20 years ago was blamed on a need to lower production costs in a “challenging economic climate”.
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