A prominent Fife Council building in Glenrothes town centre will be flattened within months if councillors give the go-ahead.
The £1.4 million demolition of Rothesay House will begin in March and take six months to complete.
The six-storey office block is now empty of staff but still costs £420,000 a year to maintain.
And council officers say they will recoup the demolition costs within three years.
Members of the authority’s cabinet committee will be asked to agree the action next week.
If approved, surveys will begin as early as December.
And once demolished, the area will be landscaped until the land is sold.
Rothesay House demolition would help regenerate Glenrothes
The Courier revealed in March that demolition was among a number of options being looked at for the 40-year-old building.
It was valued at £386,000 and officers had considered selling it.
However, market testing revealed little interest.
And they say converting it into flats would do little to improve the town centre.
In a report to go before the committee on Thursday, head of property services Alan Paul says: “The cleared site would offer an opportunity to secure private investment in the town centre.”
He says this supports the council’s ambition to regenerate the area.
And he adds: “It offers a large area of land in close proximity to the Kingdom Centre, the Rothes Halls, public transport and other amenities.”
Less need for office space since Covid pandemic
Rothesay House in Glenrothes was once home to staff from several council services, including social work and education.
The final team of community alarm staff moved out in July.
And now everyone who worked there is based either at Fife House or Bankhead, also in Glenrothes.
The building is poorly insulated and the council says the need for office space has vastly reduced since blended working was introduced in 2021.
Glenrothes Labour councillor Altany Craik said previously: “Flexible working and changes in the world of work post-Covid has had a big impact on how we use our buildings.”
The Rothesay House decision follows the demolition of Fife Council’s Kingdom House, also in Glenrothes town centre, in 2020.
And the nine-storey Glenrothes House, in North Street, was razed in 2012.
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