A vacant Edinburgh city centre retail unit is set to be transformed into a restaurant after plans were submitted to Edinburgh Council.
The site, at 45/47 Shandwick Place, was previously a hearing aid centre that closed in April 2021, months earlier than planned, due to a below-par footfall.
Now the owner of the store is considering plans from multiple restaurant owners to transform the unit, expanding in size and also offering customers a takeaway option.
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Although the nature of the restaurant is currently unknown, the plans show an ambitious change of use for the building, with plans citing the lack of successful retail units in the Shandwick area, saying that it has become more popular with Edinburgh foodies.
The location represents a perfect opportunity for the new owners to open a successful dining experience just off the city's busiest street, although there will be a fair amount of competition when it eventually gets up and running.
The plans state: "This supporting letter is being submitted in respect of an application to change the use of a currently vacant retail store at 45/47 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh. The building owner has interest in the unit from operators who would like to open a full service restaurant with kitchen facilities and as such the application includes the details of a rear wall mounted kitchen extract flue at the rear of the building.
"The applicant owns the block with the upper floors in the ownership of the applicant. The upper floors are in low level use as storage and ancillary space and can only be accessed through the ground floor unit. No residential units would be affected."
The road is just off the busy Haymarket area and has plenty fast food and established establishments surrounding it for company.
The plans continue: "45/47 Shandwick Place is a 113sqm unit which was previously leased to Amplifon which was a hearing aid centre. Whilst technically a retail use, the operation was not a high footfall type use. The lease was due to end in 2022,but Amplifon decided that the location was no longer suitable for their business model and had been seeking to sub-let the building from April 2021.
"However, no occupier was found and Amplifon handed the unit back to the current owner. Orinson have been marketing the unit following on from Lambert Innes on behalf of Amplifon resulting in a marketing campaign that has been ongoing for a year with two different agents. During this time and despite no formal marketing as anything other than a retail unit the only serious interest has been from restaurant operators. The unit remains vacant."
