Businessman Billy Hewitson has spoken of his horror at the former St Benedict’s Convent blaze.
But he insisted that the fire ravaged ruins will never be left in that state.
Mr Hewitson (left) owns the property and planned to build luxury flats plus affordable housing at the venue. He also spoke of an international school being installed but now that has been scrapped after last week’s blaze.
Mr Hewitson, who owns Dumfries firm Building Craftsmen and is chairman of Queen of the South, spoke for the first time about the huge damage to the town’s iconic building.
And he vowed: “I will certainly not leave it the way it is.
“It’s terrible...hellish.
“It is still a crime scene and we cannot get in until we get the engineers’ report.
“I do know the extent of the damage because you can see it. I don’t know where it started but we know how it started.
“Once we get the report we can assess our options and Historic Scotland will tell us what our options are.”
The former convent had been plagued by vandalism for months with gangs breaking in on a regular basis using ladders to clamber over barbed wire defences, and also employing power tools to break into the building before wreaking havoc by smashing windows and staging drink fuelled parties.
Mr Hewitson added: “This was something that could happen.
“It’s so disappointing that vandals trash the place and then it’s burned down..it is irreplaceable.
“We did a brochure on an international school and had interested parties for that and I thought it was a brilliant thing for the town.
“It would have brought up to 250 pupils coming to Dumfries with their families and we were talking to the university about it for a tie in and it was all great stuff but I doubt if they will carry on because it was the history of the building that was the attraction.
“You can build a new school anywhere in Dumfries but it was the building itself that was the attraction.”
Mr Hewitson said of future plans: “It will probably be apartments and housing if we can get cross funding from the housing people.
“It would still be built as well as affordable housing too if I can get the Scottish Government to buy into it then it would be housing for a lot of people from Dumfries and not just incomers.
“At the end of the day I don’t know how the insurance thing will work.
“We had meetings with them the other day but we will wait and see.
“You can never second guess them but whatever it is I will work with them.
“You can never insure it for the value of what it probably is and you can never get the craftsmen, so it will never be back to the way it was.
“It was a prominent building.”
