Plans for a major ‘parkland campus’ to house the headquarters of a online gambling company in Douglas have been granted permission.

It has been described as the ‘largest single private investment in the Isle of Man’ that will create around 300 jobs, with 100 or so of the company’s workforce to be housed at the site.

Jade Tree Ltd, the company behind the plans (22/00549/B), intends to build a base for King Gaming Limited at the site on Victoria Road, which used to house Cunningham’s Holiday Camp.

KGL, which describes itself as providing ‘a wide variety of online sports, casino, lottery products for our customers’ is currently registered at an address on Bucks Road in addition to operating from another premises in the The Summerhill Business Park.

The e-gaming company said it will be ‘largest single private investment in the Isle of Man’ and will ‘represent the best of architecture and design’, with Dutch architecture firm HofmanDujardin to be contracted.

In addition to 66 residential apartments for staff, the campus will include a restaurant, cafe, working areas and gym/mindfulness area.

Isle of Man Enterprises, the owner of Shoprite and a neigbour in the area, sold the land to King Gaming.

The local company previosuly stated that whilst it welcomes development on the vacant site, it opposed the specifc plans on the grounds of ‘inadequate parking, road safety, flood risks, loss of trees and the impact on heritage’.

It submitted an appeal against the application which has just been rejected.

Isle of Man Enterprises declined to comment further until it had had the chance to read the inspector’s report.

The proposers of the development have argued that the residents of the flats are unlikely to have their own cars (as they will be foreign nationals employed under the Visa Waiver Scheme) so, with 66 staff accommodation units set within a landscaped parkland setting, only 80 car parking spaces will be required.

Both the Department for Enterprise and the Department of Infrastructure are in support of the proposal.

KGL’s business model is described in the inspection report: ‘Whilst having clients in the Isle of Man and Europe, its primary focus is supplying services to Asia.

‘As such, certain specific roles require an understanding of the Asian market and an ability to communicate fluently in the most popular regional

languages.

‘At present the staff live in two hotels and a house in multiple occupancy, none of which is ideal.’

The report continued, addressing parking concerns: ‘It is on this basis that the applicant has promoted the scheme as requiring less car parking than would normally be required for an office development of the size proposed.

‘They contend that these staff members, coming from the Far East on the Intra-company Transfer visa scheme, residing in the campus apartments would not own cars and would either walk or use public transport should they wish to go into Douglas.