TORQUAY'S flagship Edginswell business park has suffered a blow after BMW Ocean confirmed it is delaying its new showroom.

The car dealership says it will probably be 'a couple of years' before it considers building at Edginswell.

However developers of the site say they are already starting talks with other potential tenants, adding they will not wait two years for a decision.

Ocean had planned to invest £3million to be among the first businesses at the park, which is currently being constructed on the outskirts of the town.

However bosses say the state of the economy together with a delay in the building of the proposed Kingskerswell bypass had left it with no choice but to delay the move.

Mike Evans, owner and chairman Ocean BMW/Mini, (pictured above) said: "We have spent three years working on the planning but things have changed as far as the economy and the bypass are concerned.

"The new car market is down 30 per cent so the need for extra space is reduced.

"In times when the economy is doing well you have people lining up to build and invest but when the economy is in decline that queue disappears. That is what has happened here.

"In the present circumstances we are probably better off where we are in Collaton St Mary.

"My guess is that it will still happen, possibly in a couple of years time."

The decision is a sign that business investment is being stifled due to delays in building the bypass.

Mr Evans said: "One of the attractions of the site is that the bypass is due to end there.

"It is still a nightmare getting to Kingskerswell from Newton Abbot.

"We have a business in Falmouth and that has been transformed by the road improvements at Goss Moor.

"It would be good to see Edginswell moving because it would do an awful lot for that end of Torbay."

BMW Ocean has planning permission for the plot on the 15-acre Newton Road site which is being developed by landowners the Hawkins Trust.

Accountants Francis Clark and legal firm Kitson Hutchings will take up offices currently being built and due to be completed in 2010.

Richard May, project manager, said offices would probably now be built instead of the showrooms.

"I think problems in the car industry have caught up with them.

"It would have been nice to have them because they were with us at the beginning and produced some very smart buildings.

"But since we did our latest advertising we have had very good interest from other parties. I have told them we will keep the site for a while but sadly we can't hang on forever and we are starting to have discussions with other people."

Ocean BMW's Totnes Road showroom suffered an estimated £1million damage, including the loss of £250,000 of cars, in an arson attack which wrecked the building in October 2007.