Plans for the demolition of a former fashion store as part of a hotel development on one of Scotland's most famous streets have been recommended for approval.
The plans for a new £100 million, 300-room hotel that will bring 250 jobs to Princes Street in Edinburgh go before councillors next week.
The Ruby Hotels development, across the former Next, Zara and Russell and Bromley stores, is expected to be the largest single investment on the street since the Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience opened in 2021.
READ MORE: 'Total demolition' for shop on famous Scottish street
The unlisted building that housed Next, an office and retail block dating from 1971, will be demolished, as “it is not considered to have a positive relationship with the street”.
The proposals “include the total demolition of the 1970s building - 107-108 Princes Street - together with the removal and replacement of structural elements in the historic structures - 104-106 Princes Street [B-listed] - which are no longer of historic interest or are considered structurally unsound”.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Princes Street hotel plan unveiled
The former Zara store was an 1875-built hotel that was converted to retail in the 20th century, while the former Russell and Bromley store at 106 is a late 18th former townhouse, also changed to shops in the last century.
The plan from Hunter REIM and Ruby Hotels, along with architect 3D Reid, has been “subject to a significant public engagement”.
READ MORE: Luxury hotel plans unveiled
A council planning document that recommended planning permission is granted states: "The proposals are acceptable in principle and are of an acceptable design.
"The proposals do not result in an unacceptable impact to neighbouring amenity, flooding, biodiversity, and archaeology, and do not raise concerns regarding transportation."
Councillors will make a decision on the application on Wednesday.
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