Riverside Hotel

Recognising the business potential within the tourist industry, Lomond Group embarked upon a project which will form a strong foundation for its future growth in the service sector. The granting of planning permission by Dundee City Council in 2007, for a sixty-bed hotel, conference facility and restaurant was just the start. The Group is currently looking at other sites in Scotland for similar developments, and is currently refining the proposals for Dundee as it pushes forward ambitions to create a chain of ‘Lomond Hotels’. The Dundee hotel proposal not only reflects the diversification of our business, but is an excellent example of our ability to identify problematic sites and conceive development solutions which will maximise their land value.

We started with an excellent land deal creating an option to buy a site in a location 5/10 minutes drive from the city centre and near to Dundee Airport. A very compact site presented a challenge to our consultant architect Ged Young (Aim Design) and the site’s well-maintained appearance masked problems which were beneath the surface (a former landfill). Sitting next to the airport, there was also a height restriction on any structure to be built on the site. To make life even more difficult, the Development Plan of Dundee City Council contained policies which presumed against development at a location within land zoned as an employment area.

After considerable research it was established that Dundee was lacking in tourist-related facilities. There was, and still is, a need for a good quality mid range hotel which incorporates good food, and the potential to serve the city’s conference market. Lomond Group’s aim was to ensure the proposal submitted would meet that need, be designed to overcome the problems on the site, and create a landmark building on a key route into the city.

The design team rose to the challenge. The theme adopted for the design took its inspiration from air travel and the views across the Tay River. The fuselage exhausts of the World War 2 aeroplane, the Spitfire, and the elegance of the aircraft’s wings influenced the design. The result is a bedroom wing which reflects the vented spitfire exhausts, punctuated by a tower that mirrors the neighbouring airport control tower. The combined effect is a radical and prominent design creating a landmark building that befits its location at the entrance to the city. The rooms and the restaurant will command panoramic views of the Tay Estuary, the bridges and the Fife coastline, and will be complicated by excellent internal facilities.

The business community is supportive of this proposal and welcomes this valuable addition to the regeneration of the city. Achieving planning permission was challenging, but ultimately the quality of the design and the investment potential for the city were recognised by the Council. Working in consultation with the hotel and airport industries we are now engaged in increasing the size of the hotel allowed by the planning consent so that we can achieve 4-star standards.