Moves are afoot to develop Perth’s largest vacant site and provide a massive financial boost to the city.
After Sainsbury’s pulled the plug on a proposed £41 million supermarket on the former Perth Mart site in Crieff Road in August last year with the loss of the prospect of hundreds of new jobs for the city it has been confirmed that there has been interest from several parties.
Speculation is rife that one of them could be a rival supermarket chain.
The prime Perth site will soon be marketed and could be transformed into a retail and business development.
FRP Advisory are acting as receivers for Perth City West, which owned the site until it went into administration in October last year.
FRP Advisory confirmed there has been interest in the Perth site but said it could not reveal the identities of the parties involved.
Perth and Kinross Council leader Ian Miller said he was not personally aware of the interest in the site but highlighted its potential to any prospective developers.
“The site in Crieff Road has already been designated for commercial development in the Perth local development plan,” he said.
“It’s certainly a prime site in Perth so I’m not surprised there has been interest in it and it would be ideal for business of any sort.”
It is the latest episode in what has been a tumultuous period for the site, which began in July 2009 when the famous Perth Mart closed its doors.
The next month Sainsbury’s announced plans for a major store on the site.
Two years later, the supermarket chain lodged its proposals for the £41 million store.
The development would include a large parking area and an in-store cafe.
Sainsbury’s said the supermarket would create around 450 jobs.
The local authority granted planning consent for the store in May 2012 but then caused ructions in some quarters when it passed a modified agreement that allowed the chain to begin work on the supermarket ahead of vital work on the surrounding roads infrastructure (A9/A85).
Tesco lodged an appeal with the Court of Session in Edinburgh which was later dismissed against the council’s decision to modify this section 75 agreement.
That prevented Sainsbury’s from starting work on the development.