The city’s planning committee approved an application by real estate investor CA Ventures to partially demolish buildings on Queen Street and build a 14-storey student accommodation block with 195 beds.

As part of the project, the façade of the building will be retained. There will be a cinema, gym, games lounge, dining room and study area. There will also be a ground floor commercial unit, intended for reoccupation by Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop.

A hearing was held on Tuesday to discuss the proposal, with council planners recommending the development be given the go-ahead.

Officials believe the project will “deliver economic development benefits within the city centre through investment in the built fabric, increased population, and the creation of employment opportunities”.

In a report to councillors, they added: “Additional student accommodation can be absorbed within the locality without having a harmful impact upon the maintenance of a sustainable community.”

The firms behind the plans, Carrick Properties Ltd and global real estate company CA Ventures, claim they would “bring positive, high quality regeneration to a largely vacant site within the city centre”.

It would be managed by Novel Student, which operates CA Ventures’ student accommodation portfolio across the UK and Europe.

Currently, the building on Queen Street, which was built in the early 1830s, is four storeys. The council report states the building was “occupied as the Archaos nightclub, however the nightclub owners went into liquidation and the upper floors have been vacant since 2010”.

It adds the ground floor was “let for a period in 2017, but the building has remained largely vacant in recent years and fallen into a state of disrepair”.