Boutique hotel could replace Inverness offices – one day
A NEW boutique hotel could replace an ugly office block in Inverness city centre – but redevelopment will not happen any time soon.
The suggestion for the Bridge Street site was put forward by Stuart Black, Highland Council’s director of development and infrastructure, at a meeting of Inverness Civic Trust to discuss the Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal.
Mr Black spoke about the possible future of Bridge Street, where the council last year purchased the unloved riverside office blocks for £5.3 million with a view to replacing them.
A boutique hotel was suggested as one way forward for the prominent location, and Mr Black agreed that the high demand for hotel accommodation in Inverness could make it a viable option. However, he also added a note of caution about how quickly any redevelopment might happen.
“People have said to me – why don’t you go in and demolish the site tomorrow?” he said.
“Well, there are people there with leases we have to respect and we would have to buy them out, and that would add to the cost.
“We are working on what we might do with Bridge Street but we have to bear that in mind – it is not simply the case that we can go in and blitz it tomorrow.”
His remarks came after auditors found “weaknesses” in Highland Council’s handling of the multimillion-pound Inverness and Highland City-Region Deal.
The much-heralded £315 million10-year deal, announced in March 2016, is meant to spearhead high-profile projects such as the transformation of Inverness Castle into a major tourist attraction.
However, in a report to be discussed today, the council’s internal auditors said “weaknesses in the system of controls are such as to put the system objectives at risk and/ or the level of non-compliance puts the system objectives at risk”.
They highlighted how £1.2 million out of the £3 million given by the Scottish Government had not yet been spent on the Inverness Castle redevelopment project – despite being received three years ago.
“As the accountable body, the council is responsible for the management of grant funds and could be held liable if not managed appropriately,” the report stated
