Major expansion plans for Inverness riverside hotel
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Inverness’s tourist boom shows no signs of slowing as a city hotel has lodged plans to more than treble in size.
Jon and Victoria Erasmus, owners of the Waterside Hotel in Ness Bank, want to increase the number of bedrooms there from 28 to 85, utilising existing car parking as space for the new accommodation.
New owners of the Crown Court Hotel in Southside Road have also announced they will be creating an additional 10 rooms as part of a major refurbishment and the team behind the new hotel planned for the site of the former Glebe Street swimming pool have confirmed construction will start there later this year.
Developers behind a further hotel planned for the site of the two-storey car park in Rose Street have also just lodged a request for consent to create a new road leading from the neighbouring bus station there, which they promised as part of the development.
Edinburgh-based Mr and Mrs Erasmus bought the Waterside Hotel in 2018 and also own the neighbouring Glen Mhor Hotel, which has itself undergone significant expansion.
They want to add an extension to the existing two-storey property and build a neighbouring two-and-three-quarter-storey annexe.
But the plans have sparked concerns about parking capacity.
Fiona MacBeth, chairwoman of Crown Community Council, said: “At first glance, it doesn’t seem to make sense to increase the number of bedrooms but reduce the number of car parking spaces.
“Any increase in coach traffic or cars to this area of the town will need to be monitored by a traffic regulator.”
Pat Hayden, who stood down as community council chairwoman at the end of last year but still lives locally, also raised doubts.
She said: “People come to the area by car, and they will need somewhere to park.
“I will be very surprised if the planners look favourably upon this at all.”
In supporting documentation, however, developers say the intention is to manage Glen Mhor and the Waterside as one venture, with shared parking after reconfiguration to provide “some additional parking facilities”.
“It is recognised that the number of spaces provided is less than that required by current parking standards,” they said.
“However, this has to be balanced against the city centre location of the facility, the existing on-site parking facilities provided and the proximity of the site to the main public transport network. It is also served by excellent pedestrian facilities.
“The number of guests requiring car parking facilities is generally low, with a significant percentage arriving by public transport.”
The hotel’s manager Emmanuel Moine added: “As a city centre hotel we must have the largest car park in town. Very rarely is it full.
“This is a huge asset compared to the competition and we want to keep it that way.”
In a sign that the city’s hotel sector believes there is still room for growth, the new owners of the Crown Court Hotel are increasing the number of bedrooms there from 12 to 22.
The hotel was recently bought by Lossiemouth-based Ali & Mac Properties Ltd, to be managed by its MacAli Hotel Group subsidiary.
Also this week, a spokesman for Vastint, the firm behind the development of the new Glebe Street hotel, said: “We plan to start on-site works in the second half of 2020. The completion and opening are expected in the first half of 2022.”
Elsewhere work is continuing on the creation of a new four-star hotel at the former Highland Council service point building in Church Street – by the owners of the city’s Kingsmills and Ness Walk Hotels – and plans are still being developed for a new hotel on the site of the Ironworks music venue.
As the Courier also reported recently, the owners of the Hootananny pub in Church Street have also lodged plans to convert upper floors there into hostel accommodation.
