Thistle to take centre stage in £50m complex

Thistle Hotels looks set to build a five-star standard, 267-bedroom hotel in Edinburgh city centre as part of a £50m development.

Work on the hotel will begin provided planning consent is given to a 200,000sq ft leisure complex. An application was submitted last month.

The complex will adjoin the proposed hotel, which already has consent, on a four-acre site at Greenside Place, next to the city's Playhouse Theatre.

A multiplex cinema, 10-pin bowling alley, health and fitness facilities, bingo hall and restaurants are all part of the project, which is scheduled to take two years to complete.

"We will be the developers and then lease out the units," said Ken Arkley, development director at Thistle. "This is a unique opportunity and not a planned departure from our strategy."

The hotel will have two conference rooms holding 1,000 delegates each, as well as about 20 smaller meeting rooms.

Mr Arkley said the 147-bedroom King James in Leith Street - a three-star Thistle Hotel opposite the development - would be marketed as a package with the new hotel.

"There is a huge market in Edinburgh for corporate conferences where delegates want to meet and stay in one location," he added.

Planning consent for the hotel was first awarded in 1986 but put on hold following Mount Charlotte Investments' acquisition of Thistle in 1989.