Groups bidding to save Perth City Hall are to have a full nine months to get funding into place.
It had been thought that they only had three months to set out their visions for the future use of the Edwardian-listed building and how it would be financed, but this timescale has proved to be incorrect.
Jones Lang LaSalle, who are marketing the empty civic building on behalf of Perth and Kinross Council, had said interested parties had until May 1 to lodge their detailed submissions but they have now written to all concerned to say the date is actually six months beyond that.
A council spokesperson confirmed that this was the case and gave an explanation of how the mix-up occurred.
“The closing date for the submission of proposals for city hall is October 31 2013, giving developers nine months in total to put together their detailed plans,” said the council spokesperson.
“There were some discussions last year about the merits of splitting this nine-month period into three months for the submission of bids, followed by six months of evaluation and discussion with each bidder.
“However, on reflection, we feel that this distinction was not made clear to developers. Therefore, we have agreed to give bidders the whole nine months to formulate and submit their plans.”
The only group to have publicly revealed their intentions, Perth City Market Trust, say the timescale will not impact on their proposal to create a “destination attraction”, which they claim could reverse Perth’s slide as a mecca for shoppers.
Their plans involve creating a food market hall on the main floor, a new tourist shop and visitor centre within the existing entrance hall, space for youth enterprise activities and a top floor at roof level for restaurants.
“Our preparations are already so far advanced that we were perfectly happy with a period of only three months on the assumption that the council minute had been duly amended, but it now appears that it had not,” said their managing trustee Vivian Linacre.
“After the many wasted years since the Wharfside saga, we must ensure that these proceedings are proof against any risk of future challenge.”
He said Jones Lang LaSalle had acted in good faith in issuing the initial date for submissions of May 1.
The search for an alternative to plans to demolish the city hall and replace it with a civic square was forced on the council after Historic Scotland recommended to the Scottish Government that more effort should be made to find a new future for the building.
A marketing exercise was undertaken and an undisclosed number of notes of interest were lodged.
The council is offering a long lease of the city hall and proposals involving the purchase of part or the whole of the property will not be considered.
The commercial viability of each proposal must be demonstrated along with how it is proposed to fund the project.
The economic benefits of any project and the estimated resident and visitor expenditure must also be outlined by the new deadline.