diff --git a/python-tornado.changes b/python-tornado.changes
index 8a2a131..8af99f0 100644
--- a/python-tornado.changes
+++ b/python-tornado.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Fri Jun 23 17:41:45 UTC 2017 - jmatejek@suse.com
+
+- in %pre, remove egg-info file if installed, because it's being
+  replaced by a directory (bsc#1035604)
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Jun 13 14:57:15 UTC 2017 - jmatejek@suse.com
 
diff --git a/python-tornado.spec b/python-tornado.spec
index b2471e3..73e0e0c 100644
--- a/python-tornado.spec
+++ b/python-tornado.spec
@@ -77,6 +77,12 @@ find demos tornado -name "*.py" -exec sed -i "/#\!\/usr\/bin\/.*/d" {} \;
 %patch0 -p1
 %patch1 -p1
 
+%pre
+# remove egg-info _file_, being replaced by an egg-info directory
+if [ -f %{python_sitearch}/tornado-%{version}-py%{python_version}.egg-info ]; then
+    rm %{python_sitearch}/tornado-%{version}-py%{python_version}.egg-info
+fi
+
 %build
 %python_build