A former council office building in Perth that was offered to a developer to buy for £1 is set to reopen as a boutique hotel.
Plans for 1-5 High Street are expected to be lodged with Perth and Kinross Council shortly.
It comes two years after councillors voted to offload the landmark in a controversial £1 deal.
The council’s planning chief David Littlejohn updated councillors on the progress on Wednesday.
He said: “I am delighted to advise that the planning application for the conversion of 1-5 High Street into a boutique hotel is currently being prepared by the developer with an opening scheduled, subject to planning permission, for mid-2026.”
Perth and Kinross Council came under fire for the sale of 1-5 High Street when the plans emerged in 2020.
Opposition councillors questioned why the authority was selling offices for £1 when it was renting space in Pullar House for £2.5m a year.
The rent on Pullar House has since risen to £3.2m.
But officials declared 1-5 High Street was not suitable for “efficient office accommodation”.
And they said developers were set to invest £7m in the premises, while the council would provide £1.9m.
The vote to sell went ahead in private in 2022.
Perth and Kinross Council later confirmed they had agreed the council should enter into a lease agreement with Henley Homes.
The deal would give the developer the option to buy the building once the work is completed.
The council confirmed on Wednesday that the deal had gone ahead.
1-5 High Street not only change ahead for Perth city centre
The plans for 1-5 High Street emerged as the full council signed off a new ‘wish list’ of proposals for Perth city centre.
The blueprint, revealed by The Courier last Wednesday, could included the part-demolition of the St John’s shopping centre.
It also includes suggestions to breathe new life into landmarks such as the empty Debenhams building and the former McEwens store.
And the vision proposes the creation of a series of quarters – such as a Station Quarter and a Harbour Quarter – with new attractions for locals and visitors.
The suggestions, from consultants The Urbanists, are all ideas at this stage.
But councillors were told: “It is important that the council has a range of ‘shovel ready’ projects ready to be delivered as and when funding, especially external funding, becomes available.”
Councillors raised a number of ambitions for Perth city centre which were not in the blueprint.
These included a tram network, and plans for the former What Every Woman Wants store in Scott Street.
The public will now be consulted on the document.
And the plan will be brought back to the council in December.
Conversation