Under plans by JM Architects, the Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) site at 2 Dewar Place will be transformed to accommodate 4,500sq/m of office space, two hotels containing 550 rooms, as well as retail and leisure uses.

The scheme will constitute three separate buildings, each rising on top of a central podium on a constricted site which is also bisected by a main line railway tunnel connecting Haymarket with Waverley.

It is intended that the hotels will be located centrally within the site, to make the optimum use of the proposed connections from the site to the Exchange across the new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the West Approach Road.

At the site’s northern edge, a landmark building accommodating office space is proposed, to take advantage of the existing commercial character of Canning Street/ Rutland Square, and to deliver a “high quality statement building in this somewhat neglected, yet highly prominent gateway to the site”.

Small-scale retail and bars/restaurants complete the mix of uses as proposed, and these are likely to occupy the ground floor space within the site.

The application also seeks full approval for the maximum height of the overall development and any limits of deviation to the siting and massing of the development, and for the location of routes through the site and points of access and egress.

A set of plans will accompany the PPP application which fix the maximum footprint of the proposed hotel buildings, and the maximum development ‘envelope’.

The proposed development will be based on an approved masterplan prepared for the site by PLP Architects in 2010.