Renewed plan for 28 homes to transform ‘eyesore’ Dundee city centre site

The plans were first given the green-light by Dundee City Council in 2019.

By Laura Devlin

March 27 2023, 2:25pm

How the development could look. Image: A B Roger & Young Ltd architects.

Developers have renewed plans to transform a derelict Dundee city centre site with new homes and retails units.

An application has been lodged with Dundee City Council to build 28 flats and three retail units on the site of a former warehouse on Trades Lane in Dundee.

The application had previously been given the green-light by the council in 2019, however no work has been undertaken since the approval and the previous approval has expired.

The developer has now submitted a fresh application, asking the local authority to renew approval for the plan.

What is the proposed development?

Under the plans lodged with DCC, submitted by A B Roger & Young Ltd architects in Brechin, up to three retail units and 28 “open-plan” flats could be built on the Trades Lane site.

Twenty five of the flats will be situated across the first five storeys of the building, with three penthouse apartments with three bedrooms each on the top floor.

The site is on the corner of Trades Lane and South Marketgait and was previously home to an engineering supplies warehouse facility.

In a design statement submitted alongside the application, the developers said they aim to deliver a “high quality modern development” within the “vibrant context of Dundee city centre”.

An impression of how the building could look from the South Marketgait dual carriageway. Image: A B Roger & Young Ltd architects.

It’s also hoped the proposals will establish “a positive relationship with the surrounding context” and which will “remove an abandoned eyesore” and “continue with the regeneration of Dundee”.

The plans were first unveiled in November 2018, with Dundee City Council granting planning permission for the development the following June.

However in the two-and-half years since the approval, no work has been carried out and the site remains derelict.

Work starting on Customs House

The re-submission of the application comes five months after it was announced work on Customs House, which sits opposite Trades Lane, was set to begin.

Custom House, which is opposite Trades Lane, has lain empty for more than a decade. Image: DC Thomson.

The A-listed Georgian mansion house, which has been empty for more than a decade, is to be transformed into 20 luxury flats, with plans to build a further 29 flats across two new-build structures also approved.