Tony Chambers, chairman of AquiGen

UP TO 300 new retail jobs are expected to be created in Ipswich if the second phase of a major development scheme is given the go-ahead next week.

Home furnishings stores DFS and Paul Simon are thought to be among the line-up of tenants planned for a 60,000sq ft scheme which is planned to stand opposite the multi-million pound John Lewis at home/Waitrose complex due to open on the old Cranes site at Nacton on November 8, which will create 375 jobs.

Ipswich Borough Council has given outline approval for the second phase ‘bulky goods’ complex, made up of four large units and two small ones. The smaller units are due to be occupied by a mobile phone shop and a coffee shop, and the two remaining larger units by a carpet retailer and another furniture store.

The detailed scheme, which is about two thirds of the size of the John Lewis Partnership complex, is likely to be recommended for approval when it goes before the council’s planning and development committee on October 17.

Site owner AquiGen says it also has interest from two or three other potential tenants for other plots. These will be non-retail as the permission is for a mixed scheme.

Infrastructure, including roads, is currently being installed across the site.

“It’s a fantastic fillip for the town,” said AquiGen chairman Tony Chambers. “In these difficult times, it’s great news we have been able to make these developments happen.”

If, as expected, the scheme gets the thumbs up next week, he said he was confident of getting the tenants signed up for the second building, and believed construction should be completed by summer of next year.