A BRAND new 195 bedroom hotel is set to open inside a former office block.
The vacant Edinburgh Capital House off Lothian Road in the heart of the city centre will undergo the £21 million conversion.
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Premier Inn are set to open a new Edinburgh hotelCredit: PA
The 195 room hotel will be in the city centreCredit: Getty
Whitbread PLC, the company who own Premier Inn, bought the empty offices last year.
A proposal for the huge conversion was sent to the City of Edinburgh Council.
Planning chiefs have now given them the go-ahead to completely overhaul the 1980’s building into a plush 65,350 square feet hotel.
The new Premier Inn will have a ground floor restaurant and bar and is set to become their fourth hotel in Edinburgh city centre.
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Bosses at the hotel chain say the new city centre Premier Inn will be a great spot for guests and is near some of the capital’s most popular tourist spots.
Jill Anderson, Acquisitions Manager for Scotland at Whitbread, said: “We are fortunate to have an established network of 14 trading Premier Inn hotels in Edinburgh which welcome a million visitors a year and drive £32 million in annual external spending in the city.
“The strong year-round demand we are continuing to experience for our rooms in the city is driving the expansion of Premier Inn across Edinburgh, including at Capital House in the heart of the city centre.
“It is a sensational location for a budget hotel given its proximity to iconic tourist destinations like Edinburgh Castle, a host of theatres and concert venues, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) and the Exchange District.
“Getting the green light to convert the 1980’s office into a latest format Premier Inn is a huge achievement for the team and we will waste no time in breathing fresh life into the empty building and adding another high-quality location for our customers in Scotland.”
They also reckon the new hotel will bring over £8m to the city.
A Premier Inn spokesperson added: “The new Premier Inn is anticipated to generate an additional £8.1 million per year in visitor expenditure through the external spending of more than 56,000 business and leisure guests which are predicted to stay at the hotel every year once it reaches maturity.
“Whitbread believes half of this external year-round expenditure is anticipated to be spent supporting city centre businesses based on a comprehensive nationwide study of its customers in 2023.”
It is expected to bring more than £8m to the cityCredit: Alamy