A FORMER aero-engine factory just off the M65 is to be transformed into an industrial and commercial park creating 500 jobs thanks to a £50 million investment by an East Lancashire developer.

The Blackburn-based Adhan Group of Companies announced today it had bought the 50-acre Junction Seven Business Park at Clayton-le-Moors.

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The firm exclusively revealed to the Lancashire Telegraph that the purchase is part of a £50million scheme to redevelop the historic site creating 500 jobs long-term and dozens more during the construction phase.

The firm will refurbish the existing one million square feet of premises and construct an additional half-million square feet of modern purpose-built industrial and commercial units on adjoining vacant land.

Business and community leaders have hailed the news ‘fantastic’ for the whole of East Lancashire.

Mr Damms, chief executive of the East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce which has its headquarters close to the site, said: “This is tremendous news.

“The Adhan Group are a major local company and this will be a major asset to the whole of East Lancashire.

“In the past this has proved a difficult site and this is a real investment in the future.”

Adhan, based on Preston New Road, Blackburn and led by managing director Salim Patel, is in talks with Hyndburn Council while its architects finalise designs for the ‘Junction Seven Business Park’ scheme near to the Dunkenhalgh Hotel.

It plans to start building and refurbishment by the end of June, subject to the planning process.

The cost of buying the site, refurbishing and recladding existing buildings and constructing new purpose-built units is estimated at £50million.

A spokesman for Adhan’s commercial team said: “There is strong demand in the area for high quality industrial units, ranging from start-up businesses to SMEs and larger concerns.

“We are confident we can meet that demand through a thorough refurbishment of existing buildings and a significant expansion to put existing vacant land to work for the borough and its growing businesses.”

Adhan’s announcement comes just a week after Euro-Garages revealed plans to create 200 new jobs at a multi-million pound hotel, conference and leisure hub on 98,000 square metres at the Whitebirk roundabout by junction six of the M65.

The two projects complement current and future development at the Burnley Bridge Business Park off M65 junction nine at Hapton.

Hyndburn MP Graham Jones said: “This is fantastic news.

“I and Hyndburn Council have been seeking to develop the sits at Junction 6 and Junction 7 of the M65 since 2011.

“This announcement coming on top of Euro-Garages investment last week is very pleasing bringing much-needed to jobs to the borough and East Lancashire.”

Hyndburn Council’s deputy leader, Cllr Paul Cox, said: “This is tremendous news.

“This massive investment will create jobs not just for the people of Hyndburn but for the whole of East Lancashire.”

Originally built as an aero-engine factory for the Bristol Aircraft Corporation in the 1930s, Junction Seven Business Park is split into industrial units and is home to more than 60 small to medium-sized businesses.

In 2011 London-based company Goldtique Ventures planned to create 2.000 jobs by redeveloping the site with 200 houses, a hotel, restaurant, petrol station and shops was granted planning permission, but the plans failed to materialise.

The Adhan Group of Companies owns and operates more than five million square feet of industrial, retail, office, leisure and storage space across the North-West, with further acquisitions in the pipeline to double that figure.

Located just off junction 7 of the M65, the business park is well-placed for access to the region’s major roads network.