New plans are in the offing for empty and increasingly derelict-looking properties at 1–5 Baxter's Place (Issue 203).
Dublin-based Trendy Celt Limited proposes changing the buildings' use to a licensed hotel (Class 7); and from a former cinema (at No. 5) to retail (Class 1). They also propose knocking down a structure at 2 Greenside Lane to build further hotel accommodation and related facilities, and to create access and car parking.
So far, the developers have been granted permission for a proposal of application notice (Ref. 12/02263/PAN). They will now have to consult neighbours, the New Town and Broughton Community Council, the Cockburn Association, Historic Scotland, and the Council's Planning, Environmental and Transport Departments.
A public exhibition is scheduled for the week commencing 26 August (4–8pm), with exact time and venue to be confirmed.
Trendy Celt Limited has a long-standing interest in the property. In 2009, it signed the S.75 (a legal agreement with the Council) following consent of a planning application here by the Fitzpatrick Design Collection in the previous year (Ref. 08/03635/FUL).
In correspondence associated with this latest application, developer and agent describe their determination to ensure that 'the development respects the established amenity and delivers a high quality redevelopment of a site that has been the subject of not insignificant levels of antisocial behaviour in recent years'. (By this we assume they mean the anti-social behaviour of vandals and squatters rather than any alleged neglect of the listed properties by a succession of absentee landlords.)
Trendy Celt Limited – specialising in restaurants, cafés and take-away food shops – was established in 2008. It is the parent company of Trendy Celt Edinburgh Limited, which has two subsidiaries: Trendy Celt (Baxter Place 2) Limited and Trendy Celt (Baxter Place) Limited. The assets and liabilities of these companies appear on various free online credit information sites, for whose reliability Spurtle cannot vouch.