A CONTRACTOR has been appointed to design and build a new £1.6m food and drink enterprise hub in Greenock.

The company Stewart and Shields, which is based in Helensburgh and has a site in Port Glasgow, has signed the contract to create the Baker Street Food & Drink Enterprises - six work units for ‘start-up’ food and drink enterprises.

The new facility, known as an 'incubator hub', the first of its kind in Scotland, will be built on land recently cleared at the corner of Greenock’s Baker Street and Drumfrochar Road.

It is part of the wider £2.5m road re-alignment project being delivered by RI for the council.

Fiona Maguire, Chief Executive of Ri, who awarded the contract said: “We look forward to working together with Stewart and Shields on constructing and delivering this important incubator hub and regeneration project for Greenock.”

Mark Shields, the Director at Stewart and Shields said they are looking forward to working on the project which is due for completion next summer.

He said: “We value greatly this further opportunity to work with Ri in delivering this exciting new project.”

Aimed at enticing the growth of small and medium sized food and drink businesses, the building will be equipped with everything firms need to manufacture food as well as shared office space, storage, research and board room facilities.

The design team for the Baker Street project is made up by Inverclyde-based Allied surveyors, Assist Design Architecture, structural engineers Will Rudd Davidson, mechanical engineering firm Rybka and principle design by Brown and Wallace.