Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

VIDEO: This historic Dundee jute mill is on the brink of reopening as a hotel…and the view from the top is incredible

The transformation of a historic Dundee jute mill into a £23 million boutique hotel is only weeks away from completion.

Management have confirmed the redevelopment of the Baxter Brothers site on Constable Street into a Hotel Indigo will be finished on June 4.

It comes as The Courier was given exclusive access to the landmark’s flagpole tower to see the unrivalled panoramic views of the city on offer at the building, which is almost 200 years old.

The view from the top of the Baxter Brothers mill

 

And general manager of Hotel Indigo William Inglis has confirmed the development — which will include a restaurant, bar and gym — is now “87% completed”.

He also confirmed that the official opening could take place as early as June 24 — and no later than July 4. The hotel is being run by Focus Hotels Management.

The refurbished jute mill will pay tribute to the city’s heritage and culture, retaining original features of the building including exposed original brickwork in its rooms.

Work on the former Baxter Brothers mill is due to be completed in a matter of weeks
Construction work is on-going inside Hotel Indigo

Mr Inglis said the finished hotel could be one of the best of its kind in Scotland, adding there has been an “immense responsibility” to keep such an important piece of Dundee’s history alive.

“I can’t think of many hotels in Scotland that have had such a sympathetic and full restoration of this type,” he said.

“It will have a huge place in the Scottish hotel market as well as the Dundee hotel market.

“Practical completion is taking place on June 4. The guys are not far off that. We’re 87% to be precise toward the completion of the project.

“We’ll complete on June 4 and then the time after that will be for training and development and putting in our systems.

The new Hotel Indigo in Dundee

“We should look to open four weeks after June 4. We’re not going to hang ourselves on one specific date and hang ourselves with that date.

“Hotels are here for a long, long time so a couple of days either side is fine – it’s important that we get it right and we start off on the best foot.

“With the best intentions let’s say that the last date we’d hope to be open would be July 4 and the earliest date would be June 24. So somewhere in the middle of those two dates.”

He added there are about 180 people working on site to make the project a reality and that workers, the majority of whom are locals, felt “an immense responsibility” to “get it right”.

Mr Inglis said: “When we’ve been showing local people around again a lot of them have got a connection via grandmothers or great-grandmothers who worked in the mills and you often see a bit of a tear in the eye when they see what we’ve done.

“The building’s got a new lease of life, it’s such a huge part of Dundee’s heritage and…it is going to be a significant part of Dundee’s future.”

The former mill building will be taken up by both Hotel Indigo and Staybridge Suites, which is not due to open until later in 2018.

William Baxter opened his first mill by the Dens Burn in 1822, with his firm expanding to become one of the biggest linen manufacturers in the world by the 1870s. The site was eventually closed for good in 1978.