An Edinburgh office block is set to be bulldozed to make way for luxury new apartments with private courtyards in the New Town Conservation Area.
The City of Edinburgh Council validated the proposal from the developers on Thursday January 6.
They want to create a new apartment block in York Place, at the rear of the nearby Albany Hotel, and to demolish existing buildings.
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Planning permission was previously granted to bulldoze single storey garages and an office block, leaving only the basement office building and a car park.
These will now also be demolished if the planning application is successful to make way for the new apartment block.
The new apartments will be located within a two and a half storey block, and there will be eight two bedroom dwellings in total.
The lower ground floor flats are each provided with a small private courtyard space.
While the remaining flats at ground, first and second floor level are not provided with private amenity space, there are a several public amenity spaces within walking distance including Calton Hill, the Water of Leith, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Inverleith Park, and Princes Street Gardens.
Jefcoate Anderson Architects prepared a design statement on the planning application.
They said that the developers are confident that the new building will not block sunlight from nearby buildings, as can be an issue in such applications.
They say: “The proposals do not directly overlook any other residential buildings.
“To the front of the proposals, the bedroom windows of the ground, first and second floors, along York Lane look onto the rear of the Premier Inn on York Place.
“To the rear, the living room windows of the first, second and third floor flats face the rear of the Albany Hotel.
“Both these distances exceed the typical distances between the residential properties facing each other along either side of Dublin Street Lane South and which are approximately 6.5m window to window.”
The City of Edinburgh Council will make a decision on the application in the coming weeks.
