New £1m plan revealed to revive landmark Fife factory
and live on Freeview channel 276
J W Muir Property Investment - part of the Muir group - proposes reinventing the Strand Lighting factory at the Mitchelston Industrial Estate to open it up to wider business and industry uses.
The units would be served by a communal kitchen, canteen and locker facility as part of a £1 million building-wide refurbishment programme that will also see asbestos removed and repairs made to make it more attractive.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdEfforts have been made to market the factory to new tenants since Strand pulled the shutters down in 2008 - but Muir says it has only secured "low quality, short-term lets" for small parts of the building ever since.
The firm argues that opening up the building to class 4 and 6 uses - covering business and storage and distribution - alongside general industrial use would make it easier to market.
John Handley Associates Ltd, acting agents for the Muir group, said in a statement: "The unit has been largely vacant for a number of years and occupies an important location within the Mitchelston Industrial Estate.
"The continuing vacancy of this high profile unit is detracting from the vitality of the industrial estate and the wider area.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"The occupation by a range of new, long term businesses will make a positive contribution to the amenity."
Strand, which produces stage and TV lighting, built its Kirkcaldy factory in the 1970s. It shut the plant down less than 40 years later after moving to consolidated its UK operations into a single London facility.