The upper floors of a Union Street building have been snapped up by a developer looking to convert the tired former NHS offices into flats.
Cater Group estimate the cost of their project at 181 Union Street will cost more than £1.8 million all told, and hope the conversion will encourage more people to live and work in the centre.
The Malaysian-rooted firm has purchased the upstair storeys of the building around a year after Sava Estates gained planning permission for 17 flats in the B-listed former cinema.
Sava had listed the premises for sale after gaining planning permission and listed building consent.
The asking price was £440,000.
181 Union Street already planned for flats
Cater highlighted the unusual option of providing city centre parking to potential residents as one of the reasons for their interest in the site.
Planners approved the proposals with parking after a plea from then-owners Sava to “dismiss and rethink” rules to “just get things done” – appealing to the desire held by council chiefs to draw more people back to living along Union Street.
Cater client executive, Ewan Gibson, said: “This is a great building in a fantastic location for a residential conversion.
“And with some rare onsite parking, the units are sure to receive great demand. We are looking forward to adding to the Aberdeen city centre regeneration.”
He added that his firm was keen to play a part in work – under the guise of the city centre masterplan – to encourage people back into “the heart of Aberdeen” with modern homes.
Sitting just west of Bridge Street, the block is just clear of the stretch of the city’s main thoroughfare which only last week councillors decided to pedestrianise, as part of a £150m refresh of the city blueprint.
Beyond Union Street, Cater planning more than 100 flats in Aberdeen
Cater Group has been very active in buying up potential redevelopment sites in the Granite City over the last two years.
They are also are planning to transform the “eyesore” empty Atholl House office block, once home to oil and gas firms and the Crown Office, into 250 flats.
Work continues on plans for another 26 flats in the former Maryfield House care home in Ferryhill, 86 more at the former Aberdeen University Officers’ Training Corps site in King Street, as well as redeveloping the closed Chalmers Bakery in Auchmill Road for four floors of flats.
At its peak, the cinema at 181 Union Street would have been packed with film fans during its days trading as the Picture House and the Gaumont.
It was closed in 1973 and much of the 1920s auditorium was demolished to make way for the offices currently in place.
Downstairs, a vacant shop – formerly Ponden Home Interiors – is being turned into a slot gaming arcade, next door to a betting shop.