Councillors are being urged to greenlight a massive expansion at Perth’s Inveralmond industrial estate.
A pair of Perth companies lodged plans a year ago to erect more than 50 new units at the bustling business hub on the northern edge of the city.
The multi-million pound investment is hoped will bring more than 250 jobs to the Fair City.
Thousands of people are already employed at the industrial estate, where national giants like Stagecoach, Innis and Gunn and Wyllie Recycling all have bases.
I and H Brown, who have headquarters a stones throw away on Dunkeld Road, have teamed up with Rossco Properties to draw up blueprints to fill the remaining undeveloped land at the estate.
Almost 60 new business units could be built across 22 plots on almost all of the vacant land sandwiched between the A9, Ruthvenfield Road, Double Dykes and the B993 Bertha Park Link Road which opened in 2019.
Rossco, owned by tycoon butcher Simon Howie, already has an extensive property portfolio worth more than £50m and already includes units at the industrial estate.
When the plans were first unveiled, Mr Howie said: “I am extremely positive about the opportunity to develop this front line site.
“There is a real lack of available space which can be tailored to the needs of Perth’s business community so I’m confident that we will see an upturn in activity when the buildings become available. Build it and they will come.”
In total, more than 30,000 square feet of workspace would be created on 15 hectares of agricultural land.
Just shy of three quarters of the floorspace created would be rented to businesses operating exclusively in distribution and storage.
However, the developers say this could change as plans are “led by market demand with a focus on attracting investment into the Perth.”
Council officers are advising that councillors on the local authority’s planning and development management committee sign off on the ambitious plans on January 13.
In August 2018, the developers held a mandatory consultation at McDiarmid Park, however no residents arrived to quiz them on plans and no objections have been posted to planners since.
The development site is central to a wider network of major developments in Perth, with work underway at Bertha Park to its north and housebuilding expected soon at Almond Valley to its west.
