Iconic Dundee hotel used by Churchill goes on market with £2.75m price tag

● Decision to sell comes amid major investments to attract visitors to the city

One of Scotland’s most celebrated hotels – which has welcomed guests including Sir Winston Churchill and Frank Sinatra – has been put on the market with a £2.75 million price tag.

The decision to sell the Best Western Queens Hotel in Dundee comes as work continues apace on the £1 billion Dundee Waterfront regeneration and V&A Museum projects which are expected to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the city.

The property has been owned for the past 20 years by independent hotelier Gordon Sneddon, who said the decision to sell had been a difficult one to reach.

“But with the exciting changes taking place across the city and opportunities opening up every day, it felt like the right time to pass on the baton to a new owner,” he said. Stuart Drysdale, associate director at Christie & Co which is handling the sale, said: “Dundee has been transformed in recent years with the ongoing Waterfront development which will include the V&A Museum of Design.

“This is expected to bring an additional annual 500,000 visitors to the city and numerous hotels are in the pipeline for development to cater for this projected increase in visitor numbers.”

The 53-bedroom hotel was constructed in 1878 and over the years has played an important part in Dundee’s history.

Churchill famously used it as his base from 1908-1922 in his 14 years as MP for Dundee and Sinatra stayed in 1947 during his only visit and show in Dundee.

Earlier this month plans for a £40m development including and high-end office space, a 150-bed hotel and 88 flats at Dundee Waterfront were unveiled by Robertson Construction (Tayside) and Dundee City Council.

The site is the first that will be developed as part of the masterplan for the area, and its backers say it will be a major catalyst for stimulating further investment in the area.

Dundee Waterfront has 155,000 sq ft of “shovel-ready” land ready for mixed-use development across 12 separate sites. More than £750m of private and public sector investment has so far been committed to the transformation of Dundee Waterfront, which is a joint venture between Dundee City Council and Scottish Enterprise.

This month also saw the wraps come off Dundee’s striking new waterfront V&A Museum of Design, two years after work began on the £80m project. It will showcase highlights from the V&A collection and the project is said to be “on schedule” to open next year.