Developer launches bid to revive Caltongate scheme

Published on Thursday 15 December 2011 12:03

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a £300 million development including hundreds of homes, offices, a five-star hotel and conference centre, and a series of shops and cafes in the heart of the Old Town, are to be revived.

South African developers are understood to have reached a deal with administrators to buy the majority of the site at the centre of the Caltongate scheme, which fell through two years ago, for around £7m. Now they will negotiate with the city council to buy other parcels of land and property, including empty flats in the Royal Mile, to allow the full plan to go ahead.

The deal means Lloyds Banking Group, the main creditor from the collapse of London-based Mountgrange, the developer behind the Caltongate proposals, will be able to recoup only a fraction of the £70m it is still owed.

The consortium, known as Artisan, involves South African financial investment giant Sanlam, its Isle of Man-based offshoots, Mas and Exclusive Holdings, and Ron Persaud, the businessman who first launched his vision to revive the New Street gap site more than a decade ago.

Planning permission still exists for the scheme, which provoked fierce opposition when it was first proposed.

The proposals involved the demolition of two listed buildings to make way for the hotel complex.

Conservation bodies warned about the effect the development would have on key views of the city.

The Caltongate scheme was given final approval by the Scottish Government in June 2008. Some preparation work was done, notably clearing the site at New Street, but Mountgrange collapsed in 2009 and the plans fell through.

The new deal is expected to be formally announced in the next few days.

The city council’s economic development leader, Tom Buchanan, said he was keen to see something happen on the empty site.

He said: “We don’t want to go back to the 1970s and 1980s when we had gap sites that seemed to last for years.”

He said the council could try to encourage the creation of a “government quarter” next to its own Waverley Court base by persuading government agencies to move into offices in the new development.

He said: “With St Andrew’s House up on the hill and the Scottish Parliament just down the road at Holyrood, it would a good place for various agencies to be sited. We have a financial district, why not have a government district?”

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HappyHH

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 12:53 PM

I agree that the design must be sympathetic to the location. However, I do find it amusing that people get so wound up about losing the "heritage on Canongate". The buildings originally proposed for demolition were built in living memory, not long before WW2! They are not even given listed status. From reading some of the comments on the subject anyone would think they had been built by William Wallace himself!

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AccountManager

Friday, December 16, 2011 at 09:25 AM

Well, let's hope these new plans don't involve ripping up our heritage in the Canongate, like the previous plans did.

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insiderscoop

Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 01:42 PM

Ohhhh - the cities tourism leaders can get their pants in a twist again about not having only the EICC to choose from as a large conference venue. Pretty sure they must all hate EICC's (Lego Brix) market dominance anyway as all the other venues of that size are out of town or in bad locations.

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Nick O Daemouse

Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 01:29 PM

I presume the chances of them building anything resembling that wonderful design idea that appeared here a couple of years ago, that people almost unanimously loved, is close to zero. Instead the Council Planning Department, as usual, will want to take the opportunity to destroy yet another chunk of our heritage, that pulls people here in droves, by building the ugly glass-and-concrete pastiches (!) of the soulless modern design they love, while they hate anything that actually fits the locality and history of the area. The sooner the Council takes the bull by the horns and sacks every one of these arts-school faddists, the more chance we have of saving our city!

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Jams

Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 01:00 PM

So, this is the man who bought the site, made promises to the council, got planning permission and then sold it on for a profit. ...................... Now that the developer has gone bust he wants to buy the site back again, presumably for less than he sold it for, so that he can make more profit out of it. ..... Given the history of the man and the site is it not possible that he will simply make more promises to the council (who will believe wahtever anyone says apparently) and then look to sell it on again making yet more profit??? Then another developer can go bust and he can wait to buy it back again - sounds like a good earner.

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