A DEVELOPER is now proposing to build a multi-storey student block instead of an aparthotel on a prominent site near Sauchiehall Street.

PMI Developments was given permission to knock down an empty shop and redevelop land at 19-21 Cambridge Street last year.

But it is has now started consultation over plans to build student accommodation there and not a hotel.

The company states: “Due to a number of factors, the viability of hotel use has been negatively impacted by market forces over the past 12 to 18 months, and thus the hotel operator couldn’t proceed. This has forced us to consider other options.”

The student complex would be similar in appearance to the approved 18-floor aparthotel designs.

Consultation documents state: “The revised proposals will maintain the consented massing, approach to materiality and overall aesthetic as closely as possible whilst addressing the spatial and technical differences between the two use types.”

The aparthotel was to have had 161 units — 55 small studios, 75 large studios and 31 with one bedroom .

A coffee shop and workspace area will be created on the ground floor. There will be external amenity space on level six.

The existing building, on the corner with Renfrew Street, has been empty for many years. Retailer Littlewoods ceased trading from the premises in 2005.