Four warehouses could be built next to the AJ Bell Stadium on land which has been on the market for leisure and retail use for years - until now.
Three plots on the site, which Salford council owns in partnership with Peel L&P, will be sold to an 'experienced developer in the logistics sector'.
The purchaser of these plots, who might not be named for months yet, has put forward plans for 'speculative construction' of industrial and distribution units.
Work on the 14.6 acres of land could start by the end of the year and create around 350 new permanent jobs once complete, according to Salford council.
The unnamed developer would lease the completed units once they are built.
It comes after Salford council has ploughed more than £25m into the stadium so far, including emergency funds to bail out the home of Salford Red Devils.
The sale of these plots would pay back some of the money loaned by the town hall to support the 12,000-seat stadium, which is also home to Sale Sharks.
Salford council agreed to build the stadium in Barton together with Peel in 2010, holding the land around the site as security against the loans granted.
At the time, it was agreed that the land would only be used for sports, retail and leisure purposes, with a covenant put in place to restrict other uses.
The first plot of land sold on the site was bought by Greene King for the Barley Farm pub in 2015, three years after construction of the stadium was complete.
A long-term lease of another plot priced 'at a premium', according to a council report, was later agreed with Aldi which opened its supermarket last year.
But despite 'significant effort put into marketing', the joint venture which owns the stadium, struggled to sell the remaining plots with the restrictions in place.
Salford council has now decided to release the 'restrictive' covenant on the land and sell plots 5A, 5B and 9 to a developer for 'logistics' purposes.
The local authority says there are 'a number of other potential sales' being discussed on the remaining 25 acres of undeveloped land around the stadium.
Salford mayor Paul Dennett approved the decision on Monday, February 22.
He said: "Needless to say, this is great news that some of the land in and around the stadium is coming forward for sale which will help pay down some of the debt the city council is carrying at the moment with regards to the development of the stadium. So this is great news for the city.
"In the climate of post-Covid-19 the creation of jobs for residents in the city becomes all the more important and certainly, with some of the indicators I've seen recently with Universal Credit claimants doubling since March, anything we can do to bring forward job opportunities, skill opportunities is well received in the city."
James Whittaker, executive director for development at Peel L&P added: "The site is closely linked to Peel L&P’s adjacent Port Salford initiative which will deliver 320,000sqm of employment space supporting up to 10,000 jobs.
"The £60m rail terminal is under development and will lever in £140m of private sector investment creating at least 2,500 jobs and secure a reduction in CO2 emissions of 14,900 tonnes per annum by taking freight movements off the road."
