Developer set to receive £600k from Glasgow City Council towards Egyptian Halls transformation

A developer is set to receive £600,000 from the council as part of a bid to transform the derelict Egyptian Halls in Glasgow into a hotel.

Glasgow City councillors will decide whether to award the grant funding to Ediston at a meeting next week as part of efforts to save the Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson property.

The council has launched a compulsory purchase order (CPO) process to take control of the A-listed building on Union Street to try and bring it back into use.

A council report said: “It is proposed that committee approves the funding award to Ediston of up to £600,000 from the Productive Use Fund to undertake the agreed technical and professional work required to develop the preferred proposal and inform negotiations on the back-to-back CPO.”

The council chose Ediston as its preferred developer for the Georgian property earlier this year – deciding to enter into negotiations with the firm to agree terms for a “back-to-back CPO agreement and to continue investigating the use of CPO powers” according to the report.

If councillors agree, the £600,000 will be taken from a £10 million budget created last year called the Bringing Property and Land back into Productive Use Fund.

The council chose Ediston as its preferred option for redeveloping the building after inviting bids from companies.

The company was selected ahead of a proposal from the current owners — two companies run by Dundee businessman Derek Souter and his partners — and a plan from one other firm (LPT/Lola Ltd).

Ediston aims to convert the upper floors into a hotel with the first and second ground floors having leisure uses.

Councillors sitting on the city administration committee will decide on the funding next week.