A developer has pleaded with council planners to let him build “high-end” flats on the site of a hotel destroyed by fire in 2006.
The vacant Seaforth Hotel was burned down in August that year while it was at the centre of controversial redevelopment plans.
It had been in operation as a traditional family-run establishment for more than 50 years.
Now, Valy Ossman has asked the local authority to relax their specifications for planning on the site for another hotel or commercial units which he says is not financially feasible.
Mr Ossman said: “I know the owners very well and they have asked me to get involved in doing something with the site and so I have written to the councillors, planning officers, everybody.
“The owners do not want to do something commercial which the site has been zoned for and they are likely to sit on it.
“It’s something the town should get involved with or it will stay an eyesore for the indefinite future.”
Mr Ossman’s Valmarshi Properties was behind the multi-million-pound flats at the town’s Quayside Marina, and he is “always looking” for opportunities to develop in the area.
He told the council: “At the moment, I am interested in acquiring the site but the only (viable) scheme will be of residential units.
“I appreciate the fact that this may not be in your local plans but sometimes we all have bitter pills to swallow.
“I know I can develop a high-end residential development that will transform the site and give Arbroath a spectacular creative structure,” he added.
The land has been owned by Seaforth Investments Ltd since 2005 and several planning applications have been made by the firm for permission to build flats.
Director Steven Smith backed Mr Ossman’s views on its commercial viability for flats.
He said: “In all the circumstances we have no option but to leave it in our land bank for the next 15 to 20 years, in the hope that we can eventually be granted residential planning consent.”
Councillor Bob Spink has said the empty 1.5 acre site is “like an ulcer” on the green parkland that surrounds it and remains a blight on the attractive western gateway to the town.
Mr Spink said: “Its bleakness is the first sad view that greets visitors when they clear the railway bridge on the western approach to the town.
“The Seaforth in its day may never have been the Ritz but there is not a person in Arbroath that was not aware of its presence, or for whom it sparked some memory or other.”