A flagship Princes Street building could be transformed into a hotel, restaurant and shops under ambitious plans which could create around 250 jobs.

The owners of the property, which currently houses BHS, have been inundated with interest in the site since the retailer went into administration earlier this year.

Agent LaSalle Investment Management, acting on behalf of owners the British Coal Pension Fund, has now revealed proposals for a £50m redevelopment.

The BHS store is still trading and a closing down sale is under way. It is expected to close in the next couple of months.

The property is made up of two buildings, one fronting Princes Street and the other fronting Rose Street covering 122,000sq ft of floor space.

Most of the upper floors have been redundant in recent years or used for storage.

An initial blueprint proposed the upper storeys of the B-listed Princes Street building are converted for hotel use, while the roof would host a restaurant and rooftop bar.

The retail space would be retained for either one flagship store, or divided to accommodate two brands.

The Rose Street building would be demolished to make way for a new building to host a restaurant backing on to the popular pedestrian street.

LaSalle has already lodged a pre-application notification with Edinburgh City Council.

It is hoped a planning application could be lodged early in 2017 with completion of the scheme in 2019.

The development would be delivered by the same team that brought Harvey Nichols and the neighbouring designer avenue Multrees Walk to the city.

Steve Spray, fund manager at LaSalle Investment Management, said he had already received interest from several "major fashion retailers" and "high quality hoteliers".

He said: "Princes Street is one of the finest streets in the world and our aim is to make it even better.

"These proposals would strengthen the shopping offer on Princes Street and create a destination restaurant and bar to add to the range of fine dining facilities the city already has.

"We are confident this would give residents more reasons to shop in and visit the city centre.

"The new hotel would also bring empty space back into good use and the development could create more than 250 jobs to replace the 50 that would sadly be lost by the closure of BHS."

He said he anticipated that the rooftop restaurant would attract interest from "leading international restaurateurs" and would boast one of the best views in the world.