Inverness Airport Business Park Limited (IABP) – Inverness Airport Business Park

A joint venture between public- and private-sector stakeholders including Highlands and Islands Airport Limited, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Moray Estates Development Company, the Inverness Airport Business Park (IABP) is an ambitious development located adjacent to Inverness Airport and the proposed new town of Tornagrain. Turnberry has provided strategic advice since the project’s inception, working with the various stakeholders to determine the optimal development approach and ultimately achieving planning permission for the project.

When built, IABP will offer a high-quality professional environment for companies in Inverness and will provide significant growth opportunities for the area at large, particularly with respect to the anticipated number of new residents at Tornagrain. On completion, the Park is designed to include 350,000 square metres of developed space to support between 5,000 and 10,000 professionals, with the first phase of the development due to create several thousand new jobs. Indeed, IABP has been identified as one of the most significant economic development opportunities for the Highlands and Islands and is a key element of the Highland Council’s A96 Corridor Development masterplan, which identified the site for development on account of its proximity to the airport and its high-quality transit links.

Beyond its economic development potential, IABP is significant on account of its masterplan and the various features proposed therein. Designed to provide a range of amenities, IABP will ultimately comprise business space, industrial space, storage and distribution space, retail space and a potential airport hotel and conference centre.

The masterplan, prepared by MAKE Architects (and now 7N Architects), also incorporates significant landscaping proposals, to create an idyllic parkland environment that capitalises on the site’s natural setting. It has also been fully integrated into the plan for the new town of Tornagrain, thus connecting it directly to several thousand proposed new residential units and extending the new town’s urban grid. Thus the project will not act as an isolated business park and will encourage a more sustainable development pattern for the region, with new professional space and opportunities developed in immediate proximity to new homes.

Turnberry advised on the creation of the initial joint venture company between the public and private sector partners, and has more recently advised on the finalisation of a Development Agreement with Warwick-based developer Roxhill, for the first phase of development. Outline planning permission is now in place for the entire development, and detailed discussions are underway for initial infrastructure provision and development of the first plots.