THE Banbridge-based Lotus Group has submitted plans for a new 150,000 sq ft storage and distribution facility on lands close to the Boulevard shopping complex at Bridgewater Retail Park.
The development will also include a bespoke headquarters building for Co Down building contractor Glasgiven Contracts on 16 acres of zoned employment land which currently lie vacant to the north-east of existing retail units, behind the existing Tesco and Home Bargains stores.
The scheme represents an investment of £15 million. It will provide up to 60 jobs in the construction phase and, once operational, will support 250 jobs.
Lotus says the storage and distribution element of the scheme, which is 20 minutes' drive from the border, will include large format portal frame warehousing, enabling effective operation and serviceability for the movement of goods.
It says this "represents a key logistical base to bolster and secure import/export supply chains through Northern Ireland".
Glasgiven Contracts, founded in Glasdrumman 30 years ago by Liam Murphy and William Smith, remains a family run business but which in the last decade has expanded into the Republic with offices at Bracetown business park in Clonee, near Dublin.
It specialises in design & build development and construction, and traditional construction and project management services across a range of building and civil engineering projects in the public and private sectors.
Projects in which it has been involved include Clifton special care school in Bangor, construction of a clean room in the intensive care unit at Craigavon Hospital, work on the leisure centres in Banbridge and Kilkeel, and on sustainable buildings including Tollymore mountain centre and the jobs & benefits office in Strabane.
