PLANS to expand a retail park on the edge of the Highland capital will damage the city centre by luring customers away, it was claimed yesterday.
And the owner of the region’s biggest shopping centre is the latest to add its voice to growing opposition to the plans at Dell of Inshes.
The proposals for the retail park beside the A9 at Inverness, include 50,000sq ft of shop space, a family pub and restaurant and 13 community allotments and could create up to 100 jobs.
The developers hope that big names such as Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s or Waitrose could open new stores at their site.
But F&C REIT Asset Management, which bought the Eastgate Centre in Inverness earlier this year as part of a £250million deal, is now objecting to the plans.
The London-based firm also took over the Bon Accord and St Nicholas centres in Aberdeen this year.
According to documents lodged with council planners, it is concerned about the impact on Inverness city centre, in particular “its vitality and viability, through drawing trade away to peripheral parts of the city”.
F&C REIT also claim that the application is speculative because there are no retailers committed to taking units.
Through their agents CBRE, the firm said: “Providing new non-food retailers that would normally be on the high street will make this area of the city far more attractive and will lead to longer dwell times at the retail park. These will attract customers, who will then go on to utilise the other facilities at the retail park and minimise the need for customers to shop in the city.”
Managers at the Eastgate Centre have reported busy trading throughout December, however figures for footfall for the week commencing December 16 were down more than 7% on last year.
The views of F&C REIT were backed yesterday by manager of Inverness Business Improvement District (Bid), Mike Smith.
The organisation has voiced concern about the increasing number of out-of-town developments in the past and Mr Smith said that Bid intended to lodge an objection to the Dell of Inshes plans.
He said: “There is an enormous amount of out-of-town development, which is disproportionate to the city centre.
“It is very difficult to compete with increased out of town competition. No other city of this size has this scale of existing and potential out of town retail.
“You only have to look at the Telford Street retail park to see the devastation that out-of-town parks have created.”
Edinburgh-based developers Corran Properties submitted a planning application to Highland Council on behalf of landowner Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Property Trust for the site opposite Inshes Retail Park last month.
No one from Corran Properties was available for comment yesterday.
However in a planning statement written by Pritchett Planning Consultants and submitted as part of the application, it is claimed that there will be “no long-term harm to the city centre”.
Inverness South Community Council supports the plans.
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