Plans for a major new hotel development that involve the demolition of a former fashion store on one of Scotland's most famous streets have been approved.
The plans for a new £100 million, 300-room hotel that will bring 250 jobs to Princes Street in Edinburgh were given the green light by councillors today.
The Hunter REIM and 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' of store to make way for £100m hotel 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: Princes Street hotel 'one of biggest investments'
The development process has been led by independent property management company Hunter REIM.
Andrew Moffat, managing director of Hunter REIM said: "We are absolutely delighted to get the go ahead for the Ruby Hotel proposals.
"Developing in a world heritage site is always challenging, but we are confident that this will be a transformational development for Princes Street, and particularly for the western end of the street which has struggled in recent years.
"We look forward to continuing to work with the council, Ruby Hotels and local stakeholders to create a development of which everyone will be proud.”
Roddy Smith, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, said: "This is a hugely important development for Princes Street and for Edinburgh. With the adjacent development stalling the city needs to keep up the momentum in the Princes Street area and continue the flow of investment in this most famous of streets.
"These proposals are a huge improvement for Princes Street - and will I am sure, encourage more investment to come forward. Whilst Edinburgh’s city centre has bounced back stronger than any other city centre in the UK outside London, we can never be complacent about the city’s future. This is a very good day for our city centre."
The hotel is expected to open in 2026.
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 here