The Department for Enterprise remains concerned that the loss of investment in the old Newson’s site on Douglas’ North Quay could lead to it remaining empty for years to come.

The department expressed that concern during the planning process and minister Lawrie Hooper has now repeated it.

A planning application by Kelproperties to demolish the historic warehouse following the rejection of that application by the planning committee on Monday (reported in this week’s Examiner).

However, Mr Hooper hopes that a future buyer of the site, which Kelproperties now says it wants to sell, could possibly use the already-approved planning permission for renovation of the existing building.

While the department is not involved in planning, Mr Hooper says it frequently works alongside businesses and the Manx Development Corporation on redeveloping brownfield, previously developed, sites, something that was spoken about frequently during the Isle of Man Government Conference last week.

He said: ‘The encouragement in line with government policy is to redevelop existing sites rather than building on green fields.’

He added: ‘What we’re doing at the moment is looking at dealing with the support schemes that we have. Through them we can incentivise businesses to do different things, for example we can offer more support if you’re trying to branch a business outside Douglas than if you’re inside that area.

‘The logic behind that was to encourage people to set up businesses in vacant properties in Ramsey, Peel, Castletown or Port Erin, wherever it may be, rather than taking more space with a brand new building in Douglas.

‘So there’s things we can do like that to look at how we support and incentivise businesses to take, not specific sites necessarily, but the type of sites that we want used.’

The minister, who was appointed on September 20, also pointed out the importance of historic buildings, he said: ‘We’ve always got to recognise that there will be an element of conservation that’s needed.

‘We don’t just want to flatten Douglas and rebuild it from scratch. There are obviously buildings and areas that you want to maintain for the character, for the history.

‘It’s about finding the right balance and how you do that and how you also encourage the right kind of positive, sustainable development that we’re all quite keen on.’

However, Mr Hooper acknowledged that there is not necessarily a blanket approach, he said: ‘Every business is different, every industry is different, the company at every site is different so it can get quite complex. There’s a lot more work that goes on trying to support businesses looking to relocate or expand.’

In regards to the North Quay site at the old Newson’s shop, Mr Hooper again said the view of the department outlined in the consultation from June of this year had not changed.