Cheshire-based Morbaine has been given approval to include food outlets within its latest Scottish retail park. It had already secured outline consent for 55,000sq ft of non-food outlets at its Fort William development.
Planning officials had recommended against a mixed-use scheme at the North Road site, but Highland Council members agreed to the extension after being told the larger development could create as many as 150 new retail and catering jobs.
Morbaine — which specialises in food and non-food retail developments — has already signed Aldi and Home Bargains as tenants for the five-acre brownfield site adjacent to the A82 Fort William to Inverness road.
The original application for a “bulky goods” and “non food” development was approved in principle last autumn with the company expecting all its tenants to be open by Christmas this year. It decided to extend the site’s scope after Tesco announced it was putting its plans for a supermarket on a nearby Fort William site on hold.
Officially, Tesco say no store will be built at Blar Mor “before 2015 at the earliest”, which has lead to community leaders accusing the supermarket giant of “land banking” to keep out rivals.
Alex Brodie is a Morbaine director. “I would like to thank the local community in Fort William and the surrounding area who have been nothing but supportive and constructive over the years and we look forward to providing them with the additional retail options that they have been asking for,” he said.
“We will keep the local authority and community updated on our progress and let them know more about when the retail park might be open and how local businesses can participate in the construction process.”
The latest approval would appear to be the final chapter in a series of protracted negotiations over the scheme between Highland Council and Morbaine dating back as far as 2007. Following Tesco’s apparent pull-out local business leaders swung their support behind the £10m project.
“It is good to hear that Morbaine is working closely with the local community to progress their ambition to attract further retail outlets into the area,” said Don Hind, chairman of Lochaber Chamber of Commerce.
“The prospect of new jobs is welcome and we hope this creates opportunities for skills training and support for individuals wanting to work in, or return to work in the retail sector.
“However, we hope the proposal will consider investment in the town centre to balance further out of town development and proposals for the relocation of existing businesses on the proposed site to be taken into account,” he added.
Founded in 1963, Morbaine retains a holding in all its developments and has built up a substantial property portfolio that includes six stores let to Tesco, two to Sainsbury’s and 16 to home improvement chain B & Q. Other tenants include well known names such as Pets at Home, Halfords, Barclays and KFC with another 13 supermarkets built for the now defunct Safeway refurbished and leased to Morrisons, Waitrose and the Co-op.
