The 50-acre Royal Elizabeth Yard in Queensferry, outside Edinburgh, currently has planning permission to develop a 830,000 sq ft bonded warehouse at the site.

This would allow Royal Elizabeth Yard, which offers distillers and investors a strategic storage location in Scotland’s central belt, added capacity for over one million casks.

The OakNorth facility will be used to refinance existing debt and support the conversion of several existing sheds into bonded whisky maturation warehouses.

“The site’s scale, location and extensive planning consents position it well to address the structural shortage of independent bonded warehousing capacity in Scotland,” said Fraser McPhail, senior director of debt finance at OakNorth.

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“In addition to supporting the refurbishment of existing buildings, we have a strong appetite to support the consented new-build development over time, enabling Royal Elizabeth Yard to continue expanding its storage capacity.

“This provides distillers and whisky investors with the flexibility to grow inventory without the need to deploy significant capital into developing their own storage infrastructure.”

Alan Wright, head of operations at Royal Elizabeth Yard, added: “Demand for independent storage capacity remains strong, and this facility gives us the flexibility to invest in the infrastructure required to support distillers and cask owners over the long term.

“Fraser and the team at OakNorth took the time to understand both the asset and the operational model, and we’re pleased to be partnering with them as we progress the next stage of the site’s evolution."