Plans have been lodged for the creation of a new hotel along Oban’s front street on a site which has lain empty for several years.
The crumbling Argyll Hotel on Corran Esplanade was knocked down in 2012 after the C-listed building was deemed irreparable.
Callum MacLeod, owner of Piazza and Ee-Usk restaurants on the North Pier now proposes to establish a 28-bedroom hotel in its place.
The building will be on two floors, using the roof space as a third floor, above an open reception, dining room and lounge.
The site is nestled between the Regent Hotel and the newly-renovated and reopened Oban Inn.
In the design statement lodged with Argyll and Bute Council’s planning department, architects confirmed they were asked to create a low-key yet elegant facade.
On floors one and two, a total of nine bedrooms will look onto Oban Bay, with four suites located in the roof space on the top floor.
Mr MacLeod has yet to decide the name of the new hotel.
He said: “It will be a modest, but smart hotel that is up to date, for the contemporary modern traveller with high expectations.
“The restaurant is a breakfasting room, the guests will be showed to the restaurants on the pier for dinner.
“It will be capable of holding 58 guests. There will be sofa beds in some of the upstairs rooms and the suites will be available as family rooms.
“It has been a long time coming and it is exciting to see it coming to fruition.”
He anticipates the hotel employing around 12 people.
The venture has been scaled down from the plan to build a 63-bedroom hotel over five floors, which Mr MacLeod and his late father Alan had originally envisaged.
Mr MacLeod added: “It is going to be a lot more in keeping with the Oban Inn and the slate roof properties nearby. It is not going to dominate the landscape at three floors with one incorporated in the roof.
“I think it is being received quite favourably.”
He hopes to open in the spring of 2019 and if planning permission is granted, construction will commence at the end of this year.
