For more than a decade it has been described as “the most expensive dog walking site in the UK” but it seems Helston Business Park is to finally be developed, with one tenant already in place and a second about to be signed up.

The owner of a local contracting firm is looking to build a warehouse development on the site, which has remained unused for the last 16 years.

Matthew Lugg, managing director of MJL Cornwall Ltd based on the Water-ma-Trout industrial estate, has applied for planning permission to build two commercial buildings containing four employment units.

These are expected to be for B1 (business), B2 (general industrial use) and B8 (special industrial group - generally applied to properties "for storage or as a distribution centre") use.

A tenant is already signed up for a 7,000 square foot unit in one of the buildings, with the remaining 5,000 square feet still available. A second tenant is also in the final stages of talks for the whole of the second, 12,000 square foot building.

However, the identities of both would-be tenants are a closely guarded secret, at their request.

Documents accompanying the plans state that this proposal is part of a wider scheme for 11 further buildings, although these do not form part of this application.

It was supported by Helston Town Council’s planning committee last month, after hearing from Mr Lugg that his consultants were providing more information about the existing drainage system, to address concerns regarding surface water.

If given permission by Cornwall Council, they will be the first units to be built on the site that has remained undeveloped since being bought by the South West Regional Development Agency in 2001.

In 2014 it was bought back by local developer and landowner David Martin - who had sold it to the RDA originally.

At that time Mr Martin said he had removed the strict criteria previously placed on the site by the RDA, which made so many demands that businesses interested in opening there were usually priced out of doing so.

The land then changed hands again almost two years ago, when Mr Lugg bought the whole site.

Mr Lugg told the Packet that if planning permission was granted then he hoped to begin work on the first building this summer.

He added: "It's taken this long to market it and get people onboard. Everything needs to be bespoke."

And he said the site's long-running reputation preceded it, adding: "It's taken me a while to convince people that I am committed to building units and delivering it. People won't believe me until we get on there and they see buildings going up!

The whole park is around 200,000 square feet in size and Mr Lugg said he hoped to develop it with buildings in varying sizes, depending on the needs of tenants.

"People take long leases of 15 or 20 years, so they want a building completely bespoke to them," he explained.

MJL Cornwall is a development and building contractor providing new homes in the south west.

It is part of the MJL Group that runs alongside MJL Plant Hire and MJL Contractors, which has a multi-million pound portfolio including the new Barratt Homes housing scheme of 104 units currently being built at Union Corner in Falmouth.