PLANNING permission for a £60 million overhaul of a historic area of Edinburgh has been submitted to the council.
Developers the Chris Stewart Group (CSG) are applying to regenerate a neglected cluster of lanes to the south east of St Andrews Square in the centre of the capital, known as The Registers.
As part of the plans, two historic listed buildings currently on the "at risk" register will be restored, transforming the neo-classical banking halls at 42 St Andrews Square into a restaurant and reinstating a former warehouse at 28 West Register Street into active commercial use while preserving its remarkable Venetian Gothic façade.
Buildings along part of West Register Street, including an empty 1960s office block and a derelict 1850s Victorian tenement will make way for Grade A office accommodation, designed to attract new businesses to the city.
The redevelopment, which will also include a hotel, residential serviced apartments, and retail units, is expected to bring nearly 750 jobs to the city centre and an economic boost of £71.4m per year.
The plans, including listed building consent and conservation area consent, have been submitted to Edinburgh City Council.
CSG chief executive Chris Stewart said: "We are delighted to be able to deliver a comprehensive regeneration of this dark and uninviting part of the city centre. Restoring more than 90 per cent of the listed fabric of the site, as well as the neglected surrounding lanes, is a major heritage gain for Edinburgh as these buildings can, once more, be put back into business and commercial use and thus can be universally appreciated and enjoyed by all.
"Delivering this regeneration will not only result in huge improvements to the public realm, they will also bring significant economic benefits to the wider city, including the delivery of much needed Grade A office space, whilst also complementing the St James development."
CSG previously carried out an award-winning transformation around Advocate's Close in Edinburgh's Old Town.
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 hereComments are closed on this article