A Turriff toilet block has been the unusual focus of a flurry of planning activity for years now.
Alternative uses as a takeaway and then a house have been explored since it was first deemed surplus to requirements.
Now, with those having failed to move forward, the Duff Street conveniences are on the market once more.
They have been listed for auction and are to go under the hammer in Glasgow at the Radisson Red in Glasgow today.
Plans to convert the toilet block into a small take-away were first mooted by an Aberdeen restaurant in September 2014, only for Aberdeenshire Council to reject them.
Architects resubmitted the proposal a year later but the idea was met with a flurry of objections and councillors again turn it down.
While an appeal against the local authority’s rejection was lodged with the Scottish Government, the architects also chose to lodge new plans to turn the site into a single-storey, one-bedroom house.
And that led to a bizarre situation in which the applicants ended up with two very different permissions for the building.
Councillors first agreed to the plans for demolition and erection of a small house, with Mid-Formartine councillor Jim Gifford agreeing it was “a much better idea”.
But matters descended into chaos when the Scottish Government approve the take-away plans, leaving both options on the table.
At the time, councillor Sandy Duncan was shocked by the decision.
He said: “With three local councillors being against it and the amount of local objections, I didn’t think this had a hope of getting through the reporters and winning an appeal.”
But in 2016, despite all the options available, the developers instead decided to sell up.
There do not, however, appear to have been any buyers and, with permissions lapsed and the deteriorating property now boarded-up, its shell will be sold at auction.
It has a guide price of £30,000.
Turriff and district councillor Anne Stirling was limited in what she could say in case the property comes before elected members for future planning permission but said it would boost the area if new owners were make use of the building.