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