Edinburgh Park hotel plans: brownfield design notes for civil and geotechnical teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Plans submitted by Mollie’s Motels propose a 207-room budget hotel on a 0.63-hectare plot at the southern edge of Edinburgh Park, marking the group’s first Scottish development. The scheme, designed by 3D Reid Architects with planning input from Lichfields and Amicus Property Consultants, targets an estimated £38.6m GVA during the construction phase alone. For civil and geotechnical teams, the business-park edge location suggests typical brownfield constraints, integration with existing utilities and transport links, and tight site logistics on a relatively small footprint.
Technical Brief
- Southern edge of Edinburgh Park location points to tie-ins with existing business-park roads, drainage and utilities.
- Business-park setting suggests typical brownfield geotechnical issues: made ground, existing foundations and buried services.
- Proximity to existing commercial buildings will constrain piling noise, vibration and construction traffic routing.
- As Mollie’s first Scottish site, design and construction must align with Scottish Building Regulations and local planning policy.
Our Take
Within our 361 Infrastructure stories, relatively few are hotel-led schemes in Scotland, so a 0.63-hectare plot at Edinburgh Park signals continuing confidence in mixed-use commercial development on the city’s western corridor rather than pure office infill.
The projected £38.6m per annum GVA during construction puts this Mollie’s Motels scheme at the upper end of hotel projects in our database by economic impact, which may strengthen its case with City of Edinburgh Council compared with smaller roadside or airport hotel proposals.
Mollie’s existing sites in Oxfordshire, Bristol and Manchester indicate a network strategy focused on strong regional business and leisure nodes, and adding Edinburgh Park extends that pattern into Scotland’s key financial and tech cluster rather than a purely tourist-centre location.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
