World's biggest hotel chain is tipped to buy Donaldson's deaf school site

HOTEL giant Intercontinental is the front-runner to snap the A-listed former home of Donaldson's Deaf School in Edinburgh, The Scotsman has learned.

The firm, which had been due to open a 17-storey hotel next to the city's Haymarket station before the scheme was kicked out after a public inquiry, is now believed to be lining up a luxury new venture in the capital on the 18-acre site nearby.

The A-listed school building, at West Coates, has been lying empty for almost three years since the deaf school relocated to a new site in West Lothian. Representatives of the firm have been on a guided tour of the site with economic development experts at the city council, who have been trying to interest the firm in other sites after the demise of its Haymarket venture.

And council insiders say the firm is leading the race to take over the site after housebuilder Cala failed to start work to create 135 luxury homes on the site.

Cala is understood to be in talks with various developers to either buy the entire site or pursue a joint planning application. A deal is expected to be announced within the next few months. Intercontinental signed up for the previous scheme earmarked for a former goods yard at the end of Morrison Street three years ago, but was forced to pull the plug on its involvement when plans to redevelop the long-running gap site were turned down by the Scottish Government.

It has since confirmed plans to create a 121-room hotel elsewhere in Edinburgh under the banner of its Staybridge Suites brand, which is targeted at extended-stay travellers and expanded into the UK from North America two years ago.

However Intercontinental, the world's biggest hotel chain, is also thought to have been eyeing up sites on the city's waterfront and near Edinburgh Airport, as well as the Donaldson's one.

It is one of several firms thought to be interested in opening up in Edinburgh.

One source at the city council said: "We have shown Intercontinental around the site of the old deaf school, which they were very interested in, particularly because it is such a flagship location on one of the major gateways into the city.

"They are clearly still in the market for at least one major development in the city and it is heartening that they have not been too put off by their experience with the Haymarket scheme."

Cala had planned to spend 80m transforming the school, with 63 flats to be created inside the existing building and a further 72 built behind in a new crescent-shaped building, but shelved the scheme due to the economic downturn.Kevin Whittaker, managing director of Cala Homes (East), said: "We've not agreed a deal with any other developers or operators as yet, we're speaking to a number of parties at the moment and we've not decided what our strategy is going to be.

"We will not be pursuing a hotel development ourselves, but the next thing that will happen will be an announcement that we have either sold the site or will be pursuing a new scheme with another developer."

No-one at Intercontinental was available for comment yesterday.

Background:

Donaldson's School for the Deaf came into being thanks to Edinburgh printer James Donaldson.

Born in the city's West Bow in 1751, he expanded and improved his family's book selling and publishing business throughout his working life.

When he died in 1830, he left more than 124,000 - a huge amount of money in the early 19th century - for a school for the care and education of poor children, with the resolution that deaf children should be particularly encouraged.

It took nine years to build the school, designed by William Henry Playfair, which opened in 1850. Playfair designed many of Edinburgh's best-known buildings, including St Stephen's Church, the National Gallery, the Royal Scottish Academy, Surgeons' Hall, and the National Monument and Observatory on Calton Hill.

Shortly before the opening, Queen Victoria (above) paid a visit to the deaf school and was impressed, saying: "It's finer than some of my Scottish palaces." It has been visited by royalty many times since - including Edward VII, the present Queen, Diana, Princess of Wales and the Princess Royal.

Donaldson's trustees agreed to sell off the site in 2003 for a reputed 15 million to help pay for a move to a custom-built facility in Linlithgow.

Work on the new facility started in 2006, and in December 2007 staff and pupils moved out of the old school and into the newone, built on the site of a former factory.