Old Sauchiehall Street department store could be turned into hotel
An old Sauchiehall Street department store could be turned into a hotel, if new plans are given the green light.
Iconic Watts Ltd want to convert parts of the old Watt Brothers department store in Glasgow city centre into a hotel.
The proposals, which have been sent to Glasgow City Council planning officials for approval, would see the retail units on the ground floor retained, with the new hotel using the remainder of the building.
This would include the basement and ground floors of the south building, and the upper floors of both.
Additional floors would be added to both buildings to ‘achieve the appropriate amount of bedrooms to attract the quality of end-user need to deliver this project’.
The building was constructed in 1914 as a department store for the Watt Brothers and was extended with a new building in 1929 - the two buildings are linked via a bridged accommodation over Sauchiehall Lane.
Watt Brothers continued to operate the building until 2019, when the doors shut for the final time.
The applicant purchased the property in 2020, as no retailer occupier had shown interest in taking over the building.