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Planning consent granted for New Town hotel
Planning consent has been granted by the City of Edinburgh Council, to transform a sandstone office building on the edge of the New Town into a 102-bedroom hotel.
Regeneration specialist Artisan Real Estate is now set to progress with the redevelopment of Albany House, located at 58 Albany Street on the corner of Broughton Street, with completion scheduled for summer 2027. Artisan has agreed terms with Whitbread plc to operate the completed hotel under its hub by Premier Inn brand.
The five-storey Albany House was constructed in the 1980s and was designed to reflect the adjacent Georgian neoclassical town houses along Albany Street. The current occupiers are relocating to new offices in the city centre in 2026.
Artisan’s design proposals will retain much of the external structure of the building while replacing the top-floor facade with contemporary new cladding and finish to meet current building standards. Internally, the hotel’s design specification includes air-sourced, heat-pump technology, replacing the existing fossil-fuel heating and hot-water system.
Artisan’s managing director for Scotland, David Westwater, said: “This hotel development will bring continued interest and investment to a vibrant corner of Edinburgh’s eastern city centre.
“We are pleased to be once again working with Whitbread to create a modern and contemporary hotel interior, with high levels of insulation and energy technology, delivering both a sustainable and attractive addition to Edinburgh’s successful hospitality sector. The existing sandstone building is well-suited to hotel development, with high levels of natural daylight and an established entrance area."
He added: “Albany House is the latest in a succession of high-profile planning proposals delivered by Artisan in Edinburgh’s city centre during the last 12 months and reinforces our stated commitment to bring substantial investment coupled with high-quality development to the heart of Scotland’s capital.”
Whitbread calculates that it currently welcomes close to a million visitors to its network of 14 Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn hotels within the City of Edinburgh Council area, and that
its guests staying at these hotels generate more than £32m in visitor expenditure to the Edinburgh economy every year.
Jill Anderson, acquisitions manager for Whitbread, said: “Albany House is an excellent location for a hub by Premier Inn hotel, and I am very pleased to be working with Artisan to expand our footprint in the city in a sustainable way, through the proposed conversion of the 1980s office building.
“Our hub by Premier Inn hotels are designed to appeal to budget, short-stay travellers, looking to stay in the most interesting and connected city-centre locations. It offers all the comfort, consistency and reliability of Premier Inn, but with a smaller bedroom. The format allows us to offer great-value rooms in the most vibrant places.”
She added: “Premier Inn has been part of Edinburgh’s hospitality scene for more than 30 years. We’re incredibly proud to have built a network of popular, good-value hotels across the city, and we see great potential for further investment driven by our own high occupancy in the city and the fact that budget hotels like Premier Inn account for just 20 per cent of the city’s bedroom stock.”
Artisan Real Estate has experience of delivering hotel development in architecturally sensitive city-centre locations. This includes three hotels as part of the award-winning New Waverley development in the heart of the Old Town – including partnering with Whitbread to deliver a Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn (trading as Edinburgh City Centre Royal Mile).
The Albany House planning proposal follows Artisan’s successful application to transform the city’s historic Caledonian Brewery into a new residential neighbourhood, which received planning consent from the council in May 2025. The developer is also progressing with the homes-led regeneration of a vacant office block on Ferry Road, to the north of the city centre.
