Work on a £16 million housing development in Perth could begin next month.
Persimmon Homes East Scotland will build 98 new homes on the grounds of the former Bell’s Scotch Whisky headquarters in Cherrybank after receiving planning permission from Perth and Kinross Council.
The 9.7-acre site, off Glasgow Road, will feature a collection of 84 two-, three-, four- and five-bedroom properties and 14 affordable apartments in a range of designs, to meet the needs of locals looking for a new home.
Once work starts, it will signal the end of a lengthy delay after the previous owners went into receivership.
London-based investment firm Hansteen Holdings, which took over the Cherrybank site in 2011, has now joined forces with Persimmon Homes to build the houses.
Outline planning permission was granted back in 2008 for a residential development, to include a care home, a hotel and offices, and the site was split into two areas.
The first site to be developed in Cherrybank was the former headquarters of Bell’s Scotch Whisky.
The second site at Pitheavlis contains the former Aviva training centre and would be redeveloped into a 38-bedroom hotel, a restaurant and a large office development.
A distinctive mosaic, which sits within Cherrybank Gardens, will be relocated as part of the plans and will form part of a pedestrian route to the north of the development.
Persimmon Homes East Scotland’s managing director Jim Kirkpatrick said: “We are delighted to be involved in the redevelopment of the land where the Bell’s Whisky headquarters once stood and we will take great care to restore and re-site the well-known Sadie MacLennan mosaic that commemorates the site’s history.
“We are proposing that the mosaic takes pride of place at the entrance to a pedestrian walkway to the north of the site.”
He continued: “Considerable thought has also gone into the landscaping and open space to ensure that the development blends sympathetically with the attractive setting and surrounding countryside off Glasgow Road.”
Work at the new Cherrybank development is expected to commence next month, with the first properties anticipated to be released for sale in August.
Plans have also been submitted for a development that could see around 200 homes and a business park built between Broxden and Cherrybank Gardens in Perth. An application has been lodged by the John Dewar Lamberkin Trust and Needhill LLP for planning permission in principle.
A spokesman for Savills, who are acting for the developers of the mixed use plan, claimed this proposal would have a “major beneficial impact” on employment provision and will assist the council to meet its housing land requirements.