A publishing firm is said to be keen to acquire one of Glasgow city centre's most architecturally significant buildings.
The company that is interested in buying Alexander 'Greek' Thomson's Egyptian Halls for office space has not been confirmed.
However, a source claimed the sale of the A-list building could involve a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) by Glasgow City Council.
Two years ago the council agreed a CPO for the purchase of the B-listed Becco Building in Tradeston which was taken over and successfully renovated by banking giant Barclays.
The upper storeys of the Egyptian Halls, which were completed in 1982 to house commercial premises for an iron magnate, have been empty for the last four decades while a succession of restoration plans have failed.
Derek Souter, 61, and his business partners - Union Street Properties and Union Street Investments - acquired the building in the 1990s following a council CPO.
READ MORE: Owner of A-list building in Glasgow city centre banned from scaffolding adverts
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said it was not in a position to confirm interest in the building.
The Herald revealed last week that the local authority has gone to the courts to prevent the owners of the building selling adverts on scaffolding that has been a fixture on Union Street for around 15 years.
The local authority says Mr Souter does not have permission to sell advertising space and has served him with an interdict.
Mr Souter said that all money raised through advertising has been ploughed into the building for maintenance and scaffolding costs.
A website run by Mr Souter’s development firms now puts the commercial deficit at £30 million.
READ MORE: Susan Aitken: Glasgow is facing serious challenges but we have a plan
The owner said he remains committed to the restoration building and will meet with the council later this month to discuss the plans.
He said he is seeking a "pragmatic solution" that would prove to the council that significant sums were not being "siphoned off".
Council leader Susan Aitken said the dilapidated building is a barrier to the regeneration of Union Street.
A new charitable body, the Egyptian Halls SCIO, has been set up to investigate the possibility of purchase and refurbishment of the building.
Paul Sweeney, Labour MSP for Glasgow, who is part of the group, said: "Mr Souter has a concept for the building which is called the Mackintosh Thomson Mews.
"The idea is to demolish the NCP car park at the back of the building, construct a new building and connect The Lighthouse with the Egyptian Halls by extending Mitchell Lane through to Union Street.
"On the face of it, it sounds like an interesting idea but the challenge I have is how is this to get financed.
"I've been trying to be an honest broker and explaining to Mr Souter that he needs to find a way to exit."
Mr Sweeney said he was not in favour of the scaffolding being taken down if it is supporting the maintenance of the building.
He said: "Whilst I want to see the scaffolding removed, I think it needs to be coupled with a comprehensive approach to restoring the building."
"We all agree a blight but simply doing one thing without having other things in place doesn't necessarily deliver a better outcome."
Mr Souter says said he was committed to the building being "returned to commercial sustainability".
He said: "We are working on what we believe to be brilliant scheme and will be updating GCC on this towards the end of the month.
"We have asked for a detailed spreadsheet from USP and USI’s Chartered Accountants that will detail all costs and income since 1999. This will include the ad hoarding income and it’s crucial this comes from an independent source.
"Our lawyers and in parallel planning consultants will look to achieve a pragmatic solution that reassures and also proves to GCC significant sums are not being siphoned off and all income is used for scheme costs similar to above."
The Egyptian Halls was added to the shortlist of the fourteen most significant endangered buildings in Europe by Europa Nostra in 2019.
A spokeswoman for Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said: “Egyptian Halls is one of Glasgow’s most well-known and historically-significant commercial buildings, designed by one of the City’s most distinctive and celebrated architects, Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson.
“We will continue to work with the applicant’s agents and Glasgow City Council to see the repair and reuse of this important A-listed building.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel