FORGIVE the crude mathematics.

There’s a property on Princes Street - being advertised here, online, if not boards on the building itself - with an asking price of at least £3m.

The advert is revealing, insofar as it says that an annual rent of £250,000 is being charged for two ground floor units in the building, which - and here’s where the crude mathematics come in - is comfortably more than the cost of servicing a £3m loan.

As well as the two ground floor units, there are upper floors, which could - following refurbishment - be turned into visitor apartments, to deliver even more of a return (which could be used towards purchasing even more property on the street).

It’s not known whether the city council or a possible ‘Three streets consortium’ (Princes Street, Rose Street and George Street) are considering a bid.

But if either entity were to succeed in acquiring the property, it could signal the start of a slow and steady reconfiguration of Princes Street, to turn it into the ‘world-class’ boulevard that everyone - locals and visitors, alike - would wish it to be.

We might not quite know what ‘world-class’ looks like; but we definitely know ‘poor quality’ when we see it. And Princes Street - and its adjoining streets - is unquestionably less than ‘world-class’. Much less.

All three streets are Edinburgh’s ‘show-off’ streets and, arguably, they together constitute the single most urgent built environment issue among Edinburgh residents - it’s what is most mentioned whenever BuildEdinburgh comes up in conversation.

To own property is to have several options at one’s disposal, including being able to decide who can make use of it and its look. Conversely, to not own property can limit room for manoeuvre, reduced - in the main and in the absence of strict regulation - to having to ask nicely.

It was almost seven months to the day when the city council’s Planning committee (here) sent a proposed ‘Princes Street and Waverley Valley Strategy’ back to the ‘drawing board’, amid concerns about ‘timidity’.

Little has been heard about the strategy since.

If there has been any ‘progress’ these last few months, it’s hardly being advertised.

Previously, this website has suggested (here) what might end up a 25 year-long strategy (it was around 25 years ago when Dynamic Earth was opened) that sees Princes Street becoming predominately cafes and visitor accommodation, Rose Street predominately food and drink and George Street predominantly retail.

It was an idea that fell mostly on deaf ears, the same fate that met another proposal: to host an open design competition for, specifically, Princes Street (here).

Princes Street is not just an Edinburgh street. It’s our shop window to the world, it’s the street that local people should be able to feel most proud about.

One person who clearly thinks a lot about Princes Street is local, renowned architect, Richard Murphy, who last year was advocating a broad new vision for it, here.

This year, he was at it again, this time musing (here) about one of the two corner sites where Princes Street meets Hanover Street, which had a planning application (here, ref: 25/04852/LBC) - to turn it into serviced apartments - recently rejected.

One option for Princes Street is rerouting buses (as happened when the tram tracks were being laid), to enable a narrowing of the street to two vehicular lanes (trams and taxis sharing, maybe with one passing place) and a widening of the northside pavement.

In other words, it does not envisage burrowing under the Princes Street Gardens embankment - as Murphy’s main, above, vision does.

But a difference of opinion is the stuff of lively debate, which could be hosted by an ambitious, entrepreneurial, transparent, hungry-for-ideas standalone organisation.

I move.

And might anyone have a spare £3m?

Mike Wilson is editor of BuildEdinburgh

Image details: copyright Mike Wilson

A PROPOSED redesign of George Street may be currently on hold - not least because of an estimated cost of £35m (here) - but the question has to be asked as to why the notion ever gained any amount of traction in the first place.

Is it possible that it was an idea that, once aired, was then deemed politically too embarrassing to abandon?

Meanwhile, is it p…

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AFTER the flurry of activity, the silence.

It’s been over three months since design proposals for Princes Street (or, more accurately, ‘Waverley Valley’) were thrown out by councillors, amid claims of timidity and calls for something more ambitious.

And unless there are moves taking place behind the scenes - which BuildEdinburgh is not privy to - it does …

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IN the words of [singer-songwriter] Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

With hind­sight, we took Princes Street for gran­ted. Vis­it­ors to Edin­burgh mar­velled at one of the world’s great boulevards, but, to us loc­als, it was just where you went to buy socks.

Then the cracks star­ted to develop.

As retail went online, bricks …

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EDINBURGH is going through one of its cyclical Princes Street ‘conversations’ - fruitless, in my time - unless, in a negative way, you count the fear of development and the flight of retail from the street caused by the creation of the Big Mall at the St James Quarter.

Or, positively, if you include the tram, and the associated new ways we value travel …

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PRINCES Street has long occupied an uneasy place in Edinburgh’s civic life: simultaneously its most recognisable address and one of its most contested.

Both our shop window and our common ground, it is the point at which the ordered confidence of the New Town meets the drama of the Old Town.

As is well documented, its magnificence was carefully curated,…

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THREE buildings on Princes Street are currently enveloped in scaffolding, with one of the properties being partly demolished.

Of the trio, two might be reasonably considered significant landmarks: Jenners department store and the former RW Forsyth department store that was latterly occupied by fashion chain, Topshop.

The third - sandwiched between the Lev…

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WHAT to do with Princes Street? It’s a question that has long exercised the city and architects both near and far.

Last week, the council’s Planning committee rejected what was being billed as ‘final non-statutory planning guidance’, for Princes Street and the ‘Waverley Valley’, mainly on the grounds that it was too timid.

The decision was reported extens…

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IF we are agreed that the future of Princes Street is probably best served by hosting a design competition - as opposed to inviting comments, only for them to potentially pile up as talk (as argued, here, on BuildEdinburgh) - then the question arises: what might prospective designers first require to know?

In no particular order:

• How might the number of b…

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IT would - from an Edinburgh perspective - be the ‘mother’ of all design competitions.

When councillors, on Wednesday, sent back to the drawing board a proposed ‘final’ strategy for Princes Street and the ‘Waverley Valley’, it was with claims ringing in their ears that something more ambitious is needed.

As it stood, the proposed strategy (here) mainly co…

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IT’S the Tuesday before last. 9.40pm. And I’ve arrived at Princes Street, for a No.4 bus, after having been dropped off in Hanover Street.

There’s nothing much happening on either Princes Street or neighbouring George Street.

But there is no question which is the more popular of the two, for promenading.

Perhaps that’s because there was nothing particular…

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