Regeneration specialist Artisan Real Estate has submitted a planning application to the Edinburgh council to transform a sandstone office building into a sustainable 102-bedroom city centre hotel.

The five-storey Albany House building was constructed in the 1980s and was designed to reflect the adjacent Georgian neoclassical town houses.

Artisan have agreed terms with Whitbread to operate the completed hotel under its popular hub by Premier Inn brand.  The proposals will retain much of the external structure of the building whilst replacing the top floor facade with a contemporary new cladding and finish to meet current building standards.  

Internally, the hotel’s design specification will meet high environmental and sustainability standards, with air-sourced heat pump technology replacing the existing fossil fuel water system.

Artisan Real Estate has already delivered three hotels as part of the New Waverley development in the Edinburgh’s Old Town – including partnering with Whitbread to deliver a Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn. Most recently, the developer has completed the transformation of Glasgow’s historic Clydeside Custom House into a new hotel quarter.

Whitbread currently welcomes close to a million visitors to its established network of hotels within the Edinburgh council area. The business calculates its guests staying at these hotels generate more than £32m in visitor expenditure to the Edinburgh economy every year.

Artisan Real Estate was founded in 2009 as an independent, entrepreneurial, values-led property developer and investor operating primarily in key regional city centre locations across the UK, including Scotland and the north of England. During the last 16 years, Artisan claims to have established itself as one of the UK’s most progressive and respected commercial and residential developers, specialising in transforming complex sites in sensitive urban locations into residential, commercial, leisure and mixed-use quarters.