WITH his smart suit, pink shirt, silk tie and friendly demeanour, Manish Chande doesn't look like public enemy number one.
Yet sitting at the conference table in his Old Town office, just the gentle swing of a wrecking ball away from the Capital's most controversial hole in the ground – the former New Street bus depot – he is in enemy territory.
Only a few yards away are the tenement flats from where a determined band of protesters have mounted a vociferous campaign against Mr Chande's firm Mountgrange's £300 million modernisation – he prefers the term "regeneration" – of a huge chunk of World Heritage Site land.
After three years of battle though, he seems to be on the brink of victory. All that's left is to fight past Scottish Government ministers and the possibility of a planning inquiry before the real work can begin – building new housing, offices, shops, a five-star hotel and new civic square.
The cries of protest from campaigning residents and many in the city's heritage lobby must still be ringing in Mr Chande's ears – for anyone hoping to tinker with the fabric of Edinburgh's historic heart – pulling down two listed buildings in the process – was never going to get an easy ride.
If there's anyone who can vouch for that, it's Manish Chande. "Of course we are pleased to have got to the position we have (where the city council has backed the plans), but there's still more to do," he says. "You are never going to please every single person. You just have to try to do what you think is the best thing and get the majority on side.
"Unfortunately, there were some very strong voices in the community which spoke quite loudly and that seemed to overshadow, I believe, what the reality was."
A chartered accountant by profession – Mr Chande gave up the opportunity to study business and commerce at Edinburgh University on his family's advice.
He speaks with a polite middle England accent, despite a background that spans continents and is steeped in turmoil.
His family's roots are in India, yet he was born in Uganda where his mother's family ran a portfolio of large businesses.
As dictator Idi Amin's reign of terror descended, the Chandes were caught in his sights. "They were a key target for the anti-Asian thing Amin did," Mr Chande nods. "They literally had to leave the country overnight. It was the mid-1970s."
They fled to Tanzania where his father's family were based. "My father had a similar problem," he says. "He had flour mills in Tanzania and his was the first business to be nationalised.
"The army came in one day to his office with guns. They literally put a gun to his head and said 'This is our business now'.
"To his credit, my father came back the next day and said to them, 'Look, you don't know how to run this business but I do. I'll run it for you as an employee'."
Mr Chande's personal involvement in what happened may have been limited – he was only six when his parents sent him to school in Norfolk– yet it couldn't fail to leave its mark.
With a background like that, it's perhaps not surprising that he wasn't about to be cowed by any protest campaign.
"Of course we anticipated difficulties, no-one likes change," he says. "We spent a lot of time and effort listening and consulting; we did exhibitions, held public meetings, sent out newsletters and we listened to what they had to say."
The consultation process was so thorough, he adds, it is now embodied in Scotland's planning act. The bottom line is, he shrugs: "You simply can't please all of the people all of the time."
The development has been plagued by accusations that Mountgrange had grown too close to the old Labour regime at the city council. It was an image which fuelled suspicions about the project.
The fact that the go-ahead for demolition work had been agreed before plans were in place for what would replace them did not help.
Nor did former council leader Donald Anderson taking up a key role with Mountgrange's lobbyists – the PR company PPS. The council's own financial interest in selling the land also added to the impression.
Then there was the infamous Mountgrange Christmas party, where the then planning convener, Trevor Davies, gave a one-fingered salute to protesters outside the champagne reception.
"The party was a moral boosting effort. We invited staff, other businesses and members of all political parties and council officers," says the sympathetic host. "The convener was coming in when someone hurled some abuse at his wife, and like any husband, he reacted. Maybe he shouldn't have but he's a human being and that's human nature."
He dismisses recent news that his firm pumped £4000 into a Labour Party champagne soiree in Glasgow, adding that Mountgrange was among a number of companies involved in sponsoring what amounted to a business networking meeting.
"Personally, I think that the council have handled all this well," he concludes. "The planning officers have been superb, they have challenged us and questioned us. It has taken three years," he says, with an air of exasperation. There has never been any impropriety at all."
Instead, Mr Chande wonders what the development's opponents' real motivation may have been. "At times I have felt I was involved in some kind of political game," he adds. "There were members of the community who I felt, at times, had a political agenda.
"But at the end of the day, if you are a responsible developer you have to listen to everyone. You can't ignore it because politically it doesn't suit you to do so."
Caltongate's future is now in the hands of the Scottish Government, sent for consideration not because of its location in the heart of a World Heritage Site, but simply because of the council's financial interest in its outcome. If approval is finally given, work will begin with a view to completing the first phase of work by 2012.
Whatever happens, there's a fair chance we've not heard the last of Manish Chande and his Mountgrange partner, Martin Myers.
"We want to do more in Edinburgh," he admits. "I love the city, I love everything about it."
EXQUISITE OR AN EYESORE?IT is one of the most dramatic developments in Edinburgh's historic heart since the 12th century – billed by the developers as a vital regeneration of a neglected area, but damned by its opponents as a potential eyesore and smeared by allegations of sleaze.
Spanning an area from Market Street and the Jeffrey Street arches, encompassing the former New Street bus depot site, it will eventually provide a modern quarter in the centre of the World Heritage Site.
The plans include 163 private homes and 42 affordable homes, retail outlets and office space. At its heart is planned a new public square surrounding artists' units, restaurants, possibly a jazz venue and, as its centrepiece, a five-star hotel and conference centre.
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www.caltongate.com •
Opponents of the proposals - www.eh8.org.uk The full article contains 1212 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
