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Wednesday, March 12, 2024

Kilmartin and Ashford form £10m joint venture in Fort William

Kilmartin and Ashford Property Group today announce that they have created a new joint venture Kilmartin Ashford for the acquisition and development of a prime High Street site in Fort William.

Kilmartin Ashford acquired the 0.86 acre site, situated at the southern end of the town's High Street, on 1 February 2024 for £2.4 million. The site comprises the former McTavish's Kitchen restaurant and nightclub, which was destroyed by fire in June 2006, together with the existing Grand Hotel.

Kilmartin Ashford intends to demolish the existing hotel and develop a mixed-use scheme consisting of high quality retail units on the ground floor, totalling approximately 20,000 sq ft in lettable area, together with a 60-bedroom hotel on the upper floors. The hotel is currently under offer to a national operator and the end value of the completed development is expected to be around £10 million.

Pre-application discussions have taken place with The Highland Council and a planning application is due to be submitted shortly. Construction is expected to begin in Summer 2008 with practical completion scheduled for Autumn 2009.

Nick Ball, Director of Kilmartin, commented: "This is an exciting project, which will provide Fort William with larger and more flexible retail space, which we believe will meet demand from a growing number of national retailers that are currently seeking space in the town.

"We look forward to working with Ashford and believe that the scheme will benefit from the combination of development and management skills that will be available through the joint venture."

Andrew Smith, Director of Ashford, added: "We are delighted to have formed this joint venture with Kilmartin, which we hope will be the first of many. This scheme offers a unique opportunity for retailers to gain access to retail space of this size and flexibility and we already have significant retailer interest. We look forward to announcing pre-lettings in due course."

Kilmartin and Ashford were represented by CBRE in the site acquisition. Culverwell and DTZ will be the joint letting agents.