Dark Blue Property Holdings, the company set up by club owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms, is expected to file for planning permission in principle today.

Set to replace the club’s current home of Dens Park, which dates back to 1899, the proposed 12,500-capacity stadium will be designed to amplify the matchday atmosphere, featuring a home-end safe-standing tribune, activated concourse areas, and LED screens. The scheme will also feature a 1000-capacity multi-use venue, tiered hospitality experiences, and a 250-capacity brew hall.

The stadium will be the centrepiece of a mixed-use destination featuring a 120-room hotel with health and wellbeing facilities, a Dundee FC training centre, residential development, and city crematorium. These will be crafted within new landscaped public realm served by a dedicated bus terminal, cycle hub, and EV charging facilities to create a well-connected new district of Dundee.

Stadium experts at Holmes Miller were brought on board to the project late last year to work with LJRH Architects of Dundee to develop a masterplan with the new stadium concept at its heart.

After the appointment, a planning permission in principle application was expected in January but the extra work behind the submission has been cited as the reason behind the delay.

Explaining the reasoning, John Nelms said: “Everything you would do for a full planning application, we have done all of that for this to make sure it works all the way through (the planning permission process).

“We call it planning in principle on steroids!

“It is well beyond what you would normally do for a planning in principle, which is bad because it takes so long to do now and is so very costly, but is very good because, once they (planning authorities) say yes, each one of the elements already has all that work done.”

Both the Scottish FA and Scottish Professional Football League have welcomed the plan.

Ian Maxwell, Scottish FA chief executive, said: “Dens Park has been an iconic Scottish football stadium for more than 100 years and while fans of all generations will cherish their favourite memories inside the stadium, we understand the club’s wish to future-proof their home and improve the matchday experience for supporters for the next 100 years.

“The Scottish FA is supportive of plans that will improve club infrastructure, the supporter experience and the image of the national game.”

Neil Doncaster, SPFL chief executive, said: “Any club that seeks to invest in improving infrastructure to this scale deserves enormous credit. This project is ambitious and one that has been worked on for some time by the owners.

“The SPFL supports efforts to enhance the Scottish football experience for the hundreds of thousands of fans who attend matches on a weekly basis.”

John Nelms added: “Today is a significant milestone in our stadium development plans. Thanks to the help of our expert planning team, architects and the wider group involved in the project, we have submitted an extensive document requesting Planning Permission in Principle.

“We look forward to sharing more details with supporters during this process and engaging with Dundee City Council to bring the vision to reality. We are grateful, too, to the Scottish FA and SPFL for their support.

“We have also been encouraged by our engagement so far with the local authority, who are on record as saying that they are supportive of developers who want to play a part in the regeneration of Dundee and that they will work to remove any barriers.”