Two major hotel developments in Edinburgh are set to go before councillors next week, including a new Dakota in the New Town and plans to transform the landmark former Scottish Widows headquarters.
The proposals for Dundas Street and Dalkeith Road will both be considered by City of Edinburgh Council’s Development Management Sub-Committee on Wednesday (30 September).
Dakota Hotels wants to demolish the existing Centrum House buildings at 108-114 and 116 Dundas Street and replace them with a seven-storey hotel.
The proposed 143-bedroom hotel would include a restaurant and bar at ground-floor level, alongside landscaping, car parking and cycle parking.
The application has been submitted by Evans Dakota Hotels Limited and would give the luxury hotel group a major new presence in Edinburgh’s New Town.
The development broadly retains the height, scale and massing of an earlier residential-led scheme approved for the site.
Heritage group the Cockburn Association said the latest proposals represented a “material improvement” on previous redevelopment plans, although it raised continuing concerns over the scale, demolition and architectural treatment of the site.
Councillors will consider a separate proposal for the Category A-listed former Scottish Widows headquarters at 15 Dalkeith Road.
The distinctive modernist complex, close to the Royal Commonwealth Pool and Holyrood Park, was designed by Sir Basil Spence, Glover & Ferguson and completed in the 1970s.
Plans have now been submitted to convert part of the vacant office complex into hotel accommodation.
The scheme involves selective demolition, substantial alterations to the building and changes to its external appearance and landscaping. The distinctive interconnected hexagonal sections at the heart of the complex would be retained.
Planning documents indicate the retained part of the building could accommodate either one large hotel or two smaller hotel operations, although an operator and final room number have not been publicly confirmed.
A third hospitality scheme is also on the agenda, with councillors due to hold a hearing into plans to convert offices at 16-26 Forth Street into an aparthotel.