Caltongate scheme set to be revived after £7m deal

SOUTH African developers have snapped up the site of a doomed development in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town – and are planning to revive most of the controversial scheme.

A consortium of property firms is thought to have clinched a £7 million deal with the administrator handling the site of the Caltongate scheme, next to Waverley Station.

It involves South African financial investment giant Sanlam, its Isle of Man-based offshoots, Mas and Exclusive Holdings, and Ron Persaud, a developer involved in a proposed scheme for the same site ten years ago, who later sold it on.

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

The Caltongate development involved a much bigger site than the one the South African consortium, Artisan, has snapped up. Several plots of land had been sold by the city council, but the local authority withdrew them from the sale being handled by administrator Deloitte after initial hopes of a developer rescuing the whole project came to nothing.

Artisan has held talks with the city council about buying its land interests back. It is thought it will try to avoid a protracted planning process by seeking to amend the previous scheme, which was approved by the Scottish Government, despite demands for a public inquiry.