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"DIY store to be demolished for student flats" (and other developments)

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  1. Klaxon
    Member

    I was pleased to be able to visit Tacheles in Berlin before it was reoccupied by the owner

    Ocean Terminal has now let a decent amount of their sub prime units to art-related business on reduced rent, my fave being the large Scottish Design Exchange where artists rent wall space and then retain 100% of purchase price. I probably visit OT once a month now to check out SDE, whereas never before.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  2. chdot
    Admin

    Duncan Place in Leith is set to reopen its doors to the community after the project received £1.2 million from the Scottish Government’s Regeneration Capital Grant Fund (RCGF). The money will be spent on refurbishing the building before being handed over to the newly registered Duncan Place charity.

    The community-led charity aims to open the hub’s doors by 2020, in time to mark the site’s centenary.

    Organisers hope to create a thriving community hub featuring affordable studios and offices available for charitable organisations, support services and social enterprises. The premises will also offer space for events, classes and workshops focusing on arts, health, education, well-being and reducing inequality in Leith.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/leith/duncan-place-to-reopen-as-leith-community-hub-after-1-2m-grant-1-4705084

    Posted 6 years ago #
  3. crowriver
    Member

    Great news about the Duncan Place centre.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  4. chdot
    Admin

    Edinburgh’s economy benefitted from a £40 million boost in 2017 thanks to the surge in purpose-built student accommodation, new research has revealed.

    The figures, released by advisory-led commercial property agency GVA, show that the student property market brought in £100m across Scotland last year – with Edinburgh pocketing the second-highest investment.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/business/study-finds-student-rents-worth-40m-to-edinburgh-economy-1-4705941

    Posted 6 years ago #
  5. chdot
    Admin

  6. chdot
    Admin

  7. gembo
    Member

    Leith depot to be turned into student flats.

    See also blue goose pub and colinton skip hire at slateford

    Where do all the students live just now?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. Frenchy
    Member

    Where do all the students live just now?

    I think all four universities in Edinburgh have plans to increase student numbers significantly.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    See also blue goose pub

    Students bunking on the Tickled Trout? End of days stuff.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. Nelly
    Member

    Perhaps they may pop into the Crossed Keys for a convivial chibbing of an evening?

    Student digs sprung up a few years ago next to my dad's club at Hillside just off London Road - the committee had all these ideas of maximizing income by attracting all the bright young things.

    Surprisingly, they were not enticed by a beige and dark wood clad bar, serving Belhaven Best and Tennents lager to retired old men.
    Nor did the delights of the snooker and pool room (old ten pences only please) draw the crowds.
    I suspect that the final nail in the coffin was the sight of all the old dears at the front door fagging away between bingo games.

    The club was sold last week due to the membership roll (literally) dying off - wonder if it will be turned into student flats?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. chdot
    Admin

    Relocating or ending?

    However, the property to the left of the RAF club house suffered badly from subsidence and was rebuilt in 1967.

    http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2017/11/17/former-raf-club-visited-neil-armstrong-market-1-2m/

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. Nelly
    Member

    @chdot - closing down (not making any money, membership reducing and no new members etc).

    It had also become - from economic necessity - a home for a few other clubs, so not sure where they will end up (RAOB which used to be next to the Guildford Arms) and also the Edinburgh gaming club - not video, more dungeons and dragons.

    They expect the sale to go through 29th March, £1.65m - seems a reasonable price for such a large property, but to convert it to anything meaningful will take a lot of money.

    That Hillside area has always had bad subsidence - indeed the RAF club itself has suffered from drainage issues over the last few years, presumably subsidence related.

    In the article you tagged, you can see the student residence to the left of the club which was converted from an office.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Perhaps they may pop into the Crossed Keys for a convivial chibbing of an evening?

    It's weird how the Trout/Goose went down the tubes despite its obvious warmth and good position yet the Keys continues despite its facade shimmering with palpable menace. I guess the finances and business model are different.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. unhurt
    Member

    Market segmentation. (Literally.)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. Nelly
    Member

    Cross Keys appears to open and close regularly. I don't think anyone can make a proper go of it.

    Shame really, it looks like a nice old building from the outside.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. chdot
    Admin

  17. gembo
    Member

    Both cross keys and tickled trout/blue goose shut

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. chdot
    Admin

    “When you have shops and bars changing and becoming more expensive you drive out working-class people and you just don’t get that social mix. It is completely destroyed.

    “We need a dynamic local authority in Edinburgh that understands the influence of the arts and that you can create long-term social capital for the local community which generates culture, which generates tourism and commerce.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/entertainment/irvine-welsh-warns-of-crass-exploitation-of-leith-by-developers-1-4712069

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. ih
    Member

    That word "balance" again. It's the answer to all dilemmas.

    From above link:
    "
    Council leader Adam McVey said: “Leith has a unique identity, heritage and sense of community that means so much to so many and we must do all we can to preserve that. There’s always a balance to be struck between protecting history and community and development, particularly in such a vibrant, thriving part of the city, and we’re very aware of our role maintaining that balance.”
    "

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. chdot
    Admin

    “That word "balance" again. It's the answer to all dilemmas.”

    Yes, sometimes people think it’s possible to reconcile different demands and aspirations ‘equitably’.

    For many years the apparent balance has been between status quo/stagnation and progress/‘the future’.

    Sometimes the ‘progress’ side of the scales has been largely altruistic - piped water, sewers, paved roads etc.

    In recent decades progress/development have mostly been promoted by people likely to make money from it. Opposers are of course NIMBIES (by definition, a ‘bad thing’).

    This has largely been promoted as ‘a good thing’ - more jobs (never mentioning ones lost in the process) or ‘your pension fund relies on it’ etc.

    After the WW II there was a lot of optimism and utopianism about rebuilding bombed cities. Somehow this was allowed to infect cities that had barely been bombed!

    Some parts of Europe rebuilt in a pre-war style, in the UK it was more likely to be more like the USA.

    Change is inevitable and often a good thing. “Balance” is largely impossible but sometimes it’s worth considering who is holding the scales and whose hand may be weighting one side or the other.

    Those with large amounts of money usually have the advantage. Unfortunately there is currently a planning system often unwilling or unable to balance that.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. gembo
    Member

    There must also be a loophole in the planning specifications? That allows student flats to be flung up?

    Leith was gentrified in the 1980s so nothing new in that. What is new is the money to be made out of student flats? Minimum of five grand rent for the term time, tourists in the summer? Also in London now, student flats for people who are no longer students.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

    But 123 High Street, due to be completed by late summer, has been described as the “most challenging undertaking, logistically and legally”, by those involved.

    One of the initial tasks was a worldwide search, as far away as Australia and the US, to trace the former owners, or descendants of those who had owned the flats, who still had legal ownership of their portion of the “air space” above the roof, and buy it from them.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/flats-fill-gap-site-in-the-sky-on-edinburgh-s-royal-mile-1-4712384

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. gembo
    Member

    Ha, or to stop anyone putting in a claim once the air space was built on. How much air space do I. Own above my house? If you go out on the roof you can see Currie rugby club playing rugger, I could give you a deckchair to sit on. If anyone wants to buy it.?

    If you had no ownership of the access route would owning airspace be much use.? (See myriad garden path neighbourhood disputes down the years)

    Posted 6 years ago #
  24. chdot
    Admin

    I think the point here is that there used to be flats which created air space rights which didn’t disappear in puffs of smoke(?)

    Do you own the mining rights under your house?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. gembo
    Member

    Ah, where is 123 high street? Above the mitre bar or thereabouts? They knocked the flats down and put them back up?

    I will look into Mining rights (obviously this is not likely to happen).

    I have found a lot of old coal that was in an ash midden.

    Also one intact portobello jar. A broken portobello jar. Numerous pieces of China and quite s lot of wire. A curious amount of crisp packets, a funny rubber demon finger puppet and a lot of broken glass.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  26. chdot
    Admin

    Neil Gardiner only spends 2 days in the city chambers

    The qualified architect, elected as an SNP councillor for the first time last year, was handed the post – overseeing decisions on major developments across the Capital – in November last year following the resignation of scandal-hit colleague Lewis Ritchie.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/city-planning-convenor-who-works-just-2-days-a-week-in-council-role-under-pressure-to-resign-1-4712710

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. chdot
    Admin

  28. chdot
    Admin

    Residents against a controversial multi-million pound development are uniting to have an input in “building something spectacular that brings Leith Walk to life again”.

    A huge area of land at Stead’s Place was snapped up last year by the Drum Property Group, which intends to replace the existing buildings with a “mixed-use development”.

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/residents-want-leith-walk-brought-back-to-life-again-1-4714062

    Posted 6 years ago #
  29. chdot
    Admin

  30. chdot
    Admin

    “There is an opportunity to repair the urban fabric and streetscape and create a more pleasant pedestrian environment and approach.”

    https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/politics/penthouse-plans-for-superflats-at-chesser-house-in-gorgie-1-4719529

    Posted 5 years ago #

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