Exciting developments could be on the horizon at a major north Carlisle business park, with several significant new additions to the site potentially on the way.

Kingmoor Park Enterprise Zone, on the northern edge of Carlisle is home to nearly 170 businesses, employing a total of a out 2,500 people.

But the site could be in line for a number of significant additions in the near future, including one firm which has expressed an interest in investing "somewhere in the region" of £65m on a "completely bespoke manufacturing plant", which would employ up to 70 people directly.

The indications of positive potential developments on the way were provided to Carlisle City Council's economic growth scrutiny panel last Thursday by Neil McIntyre, managing director of Kingmoor Park Properties, which owns and manages the site.

Kingmoor Park is designated as a primary employment area by the city council.

The authority sits on the Kingmoor Park Enterprise Zone Delivery Board alongside Cumbria County Council and the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership.

Mr McIntyre met with the city council's economic growth scrutiny panel members last week to provide an overview of the recent performance of the Enterprise Zone throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and to provide an indication of the positive outlook for Kingmoor Park in a post-Covid world.

He explained that due to the nature of the businesses attracted to Kingmoor Park, many of which operate in the manufacturing and logistics sectors, the site is set to remain in high demand through the changing nature of the economy accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Where the high street's suffered, warehousing and direct to door delivery has really grown," he said.

Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown period, Kingmoor Park signed 20 new leases, Mr McIntyre said, adding that the site is "very close" to 100 per cent capacity.

"A lot of businesses have grown in confidence over lockdown," he said.

Mr McIntyre suggested that in recent months, "we've seen the logistics and some of the manufacturing industry start to take stock", questioning how to best adapt to new permanent changes accelerated by the pandemic.

As as result, he said he has in the past six weeks had "meaningful conversations with three large logistics companies, two of which are on site and know they've already outgrown their existing building, and want to look at something bigger and better, probably with more outside parking space," he said.

"We've got two enquiries which I can't mention at the minute, because they're going into legals, but that would involve five acres of roadside development," he added.

These developments would involve "investment and job creation", Mr McIntyre said.

"We've got a real mix of people knocking on our door now, existing and a lot of people from outside of the area that see the benefits of being in Carlisle."

Further to this, Mr McIntyre hinted at a "manufacturing opportunity" potentially on the horizon for Kingmoor Park.

"I can't go into too much detail, because it's subject to an NDA [Non Disclosure Agreement], but again just to give you the confidence that people out there are looking to really put some serious money into their businesses."

He added that the firm's chief executive is set to visit the site this week.

"He wants to come and visit the site personally," Mr McIntyre said.

While he was unable to provide details on the identity of the firm, Mr McIntyre explained that the firm is "based in the north west but has no presence in Carlisle".

There is interest, he said, in spending "somewhere in the region of £65m on a completely bespoke manufacturing plant, employing probably in the region of 60 to 70 people direct".

These jobs would be "highly skilled machine operative and instrument mechanic type jobs, to service a 24/7 operation", Mr McIntyre said, adding that "probably three to four times that number" would be employed "in terms of supply chain".

This would involve "drivers, [and] associated services that keep the place going", with the supply chain going "right back to the enabling of ports in the area", as well at the involvement of a potential rail link as well.

"We're really starting to see some interest in Carlisle," Mr McIntyre said.

"I think some of that confidence comes from knowledge that people already have, some of it comes through the positive messages going out about Carlisle as being a place of growth, whether it be the Garden Village, the bypass, Northern Powerhouse, there's a genuine feel, certainly over the last three months, that we don't have to sell Carlisle perhaps as much as we maybe used to.

"The message is getting out there."

Mr McIntyre also welcomed the completion, in July last year, of Kingmoor Park's solar farm, which currently generates slightly over a third of the site's electricity consumption.

"We're just going through the sign-off of a deal to put another 2.55 megawatts on site, which would take us to over 3.5 megawatts of on-site generation," he said.

"Which would mean in daylight hours, even during the depths of December, we should be entirely powered off current rates with solar.

"We're really making in-roads into becoming a green energy site."