Paris's four-star Hotel Coste is coming to Commissioner Street in downtown Johannesburg - in the form of a lavish and lush food emporium to be created in the former banking hall of the First National Bank (FNB) building.

The building, on the corner of Commissioner and Harrison streets, was built in 1941 by architect Gordon Leith in the Fascist classicism style. It has been vacant since 2002, when the bank relocated to Bank City in Simmonds Street.

Three property developers, Brian Green, Peter Still and Mark Batchelor, have bought the building and intend turning the double-volume banking hall into a classy food emporium. You will be able to get deli, ice cream, coffee, freshly baked items and flowers, or relax at a bar or restaurant.

It will be reminiscent of the courtyard of the Hotel Coste, where diners sit below balconies of tumbling green foliage, interspersed with classical statues.

Like the hotel foyer, the new-look FNB building will have plants and creepers trailing over the edges of a mezzanine balcony, complemented by indoor plants on the floor of the hall.

This is the second development in which Green has been involved. He and Batchelor bought several buildings in Milpark, and turned them into office and retail space, calling it 44 Stanley Avenue.

That area has become a popular and very trendy place to meet, with several buzzing restaurants and bars, and décor shops. Green planted a miniature olive grove in an open area, shading several boule courts.

Edged by marble columns, the marble-floored space in the bank will retain some of the features of its banking past - the counters in the centre will remain, to be incorporated into the emporium.

Tall windows on all four sides of the hall flood the area with light and give interesting views of surrounding buildings, several of which are almost 100 years old - the historic Rand Club, Victory House, the Standard Bank building, and the SA Reserve Bank building.

The second floor will be given over to commercial interests. There will be a wellness centre and boardrooms for rent. The lush greenery in the central well, hanging over the balconies, will break the greyness of the walls.

Six tall Corinthian columns stand guard over the building's façade, and a sandstone base runs around into Harrison Street. Originally built for Barclays Bank, it housed FNB for the past two decades.

The basement vaults will be removed and replaced with parking space for the residents who have snapped up the 23 flats, from the third floor to the seventh floor, Green says.

He and his partners have kept the two-storey penthouse apartments for themselves, and plan to install a splash pool. It will have great views of the city hall and the cenotaph in Beyers Naude Square, to the north. Decks will create another floor for these apartments.

The flats sold for R320,000 to R560,000, or about R4,000 per square metre as a shell, but including water, waste and electricity installations.

They all have parquet flooring, at present covered with industrial carpeting, and while some are south facing without sun, others have light streaming in all day. The central well, however, allows reflected sun to filter in from surrounding buildings, providing a "lovely soft light", Green says.

He expects these flats to be ready by the end of the year.

The sandstone exterior of the building will be cleaned, as will the pavements around the building, which the partners hope to fill with colourful street stalls.

The Corner House, a block away on the corner of Commissioner and Simmonds streets, is also undergoing renovation. Its 15 luxury loft apartments were sold very quickly once they hit the market.