Proposals for new student accommodation in Aberdeen have been approved by planning officers to help ease the chronic shortage of beds in the city.
Council officials have rubber-stamped a blueprint for the 196-bed site at the former Plumb Centre in Powis Place, which is close to Aberdeen University.
The design was approved after Alumno Developments made modifications to its initial plans to include additional car parking.
Despite being initially proposed as a “zero car” scheme, the site will now feature spaces for 20 vehicles and room for 70 bicycles.
The building will also have a glass frontage facing on to Powis Place, roof terraces and a range of modern amenities in communal outside and indoor spaces.
Construction is expected to be complete by August 2016.
David Campbell, managing director of Alumno, said there was a worrying shortage of accommodation for students in Aberdeen that needed to be fixed.
He said he hoped the project would be the first of many in the city for his firm.
“Student accommodation is hugely under-supplied in Aberdeen – with some 32,000 people requiring rooms, there remains a gap of almost 12,000 spaces in the city, and we want to go continue to tackle that issue by developing more new facilities,” he said.
“Providing high quality accommodation adds significant value to what is already renowned as an excellent student experience in Aberdeen, enhancing its reputation as a key educational hub and boosting retention of a student body which contributes more than £470million per year to the economy, more than £350million of which is on off-campus living costs.
“We’ve worked very hard to meet the requests and requirements of the city’s planning department, and it has been a truly collaborative effort by the whole team, while maintaining our focus on delivering much-needed, high quality student accommodation stock for Aberdeen.”