The £1.2 million expansion of Gillies of Broughty Ferry will see the complete demolition of Perth’s former Royal British Legion Scotland building, it has emerged.
The furniture store’s ambitious plans for its flagship Fair City shop will see its ”footprint” increase by a third.
Plans lodged with Perth and Kinross Council now show the scheme in detail. If allowed, Gillies will expand its Mill Street operation up the Skinnergate, replacing the former Legion closed for a year with a brand new showroom.
The B-listed frontage on to George Street will also be redesigned, finally making use of the vacant shop premises next door to the existing Gillies shop front.
The Perth Memorial Club opened after the Second World War but closed last March with a rapidly dwindling membership unable to sustain it. Latterly, following two severe winters, it was taking in just £20 a day. Fixtures and fittings were sold off and the club placed on the market at an asking price of £200,000.
Gillies’ expansion plans come as it continues to trade well thanks to an extensive advertising campaign and in anticipation of an eventual upswing in the economy in general and the housing market in particular.
Chairman Euan Webster said: ”We have lost out because people have not been moving home as much. However, the other side of the coin is that because they aren’t moving, people are tending to spend a bit more doing up their homes.
”Once the housing market picks up again, we will benefit.”