Plans approved for St Catherine’s retail park

A new plan to transform part of St Catherine’s retail park in Perth has been approved.

The £10m project will now see five new stores and a restaurant opening up at the retail park on the site of the old B&Q, which will be bulldozed as part of these plans.

This comes as the owners of St Catherine’s retail park, Episo Boxes, first announced plans for the empty B&Q building nearly a decade ago after the shop moved to Crieff Road.

These plans were halted however during the economic downturn.

Cllr Peter Barrett, who represents the city centre ward at Perth and Kinross Council, welcomed the announcement, saying he was excited at how this development will revitalise part of the city centre.

He said: “The old B&Q store has been vacant for a long time and the empty units look very tired. I hope that this will provide the successful formula for attracting new tenants and stores to St Catherine’s retail park which is bound to help existing stores there, securing local jobs as well as adding around 100 new jobs to Perth.”

The project is expected to attract a number of big name brands to the Fair City as well as generating a number of new jobs.

A spokesperson for Episo added: “The purpose of the regeneration of St Catherine’s retail park north is to inject new life into a dated 1980s firstgeneration retail park, generate new interest and ultimately encourage new tenants.

“This improvement will reinforce Perth city centre as a retail destination within its peer group.”