Councillors have expressed their “frustration” at being forced to restart the marketing process of Perth City Hall.
The situation has been described as “regretful”, with some members claiming it was impeding the future development of the city Perth and Kinross Council leader Ian Miller reluctantly backed the plans.
He said: “I would rather not be in the position of having to consider this today.
“I am sure that most members of this council will share my frustration that our carefully thought-out and well-considered plans for the modernisation and improvement of Perth City Hall have once again been placed out of our control.
“We must grasp the opportunities that population growth and new development brings. That means sweeping away the blinkered and parochial attitude that has held this city back from achieving its full potential in the past.”
From mid-July interested parties will be given six months to put forward their bid for the Edwardian building.
However, all prospective applicants have been warned that they must have funding in place before coming forward.
Councillor Pete Barrett said now was the time to draw a line under the saga and called for assurances that this message would be relayed to Historic Scotland.
“There is a risk that, following the marketing exercise, they will want to repeat the whole process should another planning application come forward,” he added.
“I’d like to propose that the executive director of environment services engages with Historic Scotland to come to an agreement that the marketing process reaches a final conclusion should no viable options come forward.”
This was backed by Councillor Willie Wilson, who said Perth “deserved better”.
He also hit out at Historic Scotland, describing its power over the council’s decision-making process as “completely unacceptable”.
“We can’t afford to go through this marketing exercise again,” he added.
“If there isn’t a viable option and it isn’t clearly demonstrated, we can’t afford to have Historic Scotland look at the presumption that a proposal will come out of Scotch mist. We need to have an end game to this process.”
This was backed by councillors and Jim Valentine agreed to advise Historic Scotland that the local authority was keen to bring the saga to an end.
The building will be publicly offered on a 125-year lease for a short period to allow interested parties to submit offers.
These will have to be supported by a full business case demonstrating deliverability, funding and commercial viability, without recourse to public subsidy.
Certain to be a part of the process will be the Seventy Group, which has gained planning and listed building approval to convert the city hall into a five-star hotel.
A second bid is likely to come from the Perth City Market Trust, which hopes to convert the building into a food hall and eatery. In March it made an ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the hall.
Meanwhile, the council’s previous application to demolish the hall and replace it with a civic square has been put on hold while the marketing process goes ahead.
A report is expected to return to full council in January 2015, when a final decision will be made on the future of the hall.