BELFAST'S Castle Court Shopping Centre is experiencing a retail resurgence with a "raft of new openings" planned.
The centre was one of the north's first major indoor shopping complexes when it opened in 1990.
However, with 96 retail units, it has suffered in recent years from high vacancy rates and recently lost one of its longest running retailers in American clothes shop Gap - which moved up the street to Donegall Place.
But property agents CBRE reported the centre is turning a corner.
Its latest bi-monthly research report on the commercial property sector said: "There is due due to be a raft of new openings at Castle Court including new entrants to NI, Schuh Kids and Yours Clothing".
Schuh Kids is the children's version of the Schuh footwear chain which has an outlet directly opposite Castle Court.
Yours Clothing meanwhile is an entirely new entrant to the north. The plus-size fashion chain already has more than 80 outlets in Britain.
The centre, like Donegall Place which has also seen a number of new entrants in recent months, has benefited from reduced rates resulting from the revaluation of commercial rates.
That itself reflected changing shopping habits with the streets surrounding the Victoria Square retail complex seeing rates soar.
The CBRE report noted a number of other major moves in retail including the sale of Valley Retail Park in Newtownabbey to UK REIT for £7.15 million.
Meanwhile, the building housing Boots on Donegall Place in Belfast was sold for £2.65m.
And Bloomfield Shopping Centre in Bangor has been put on the market for £50m.
It all adds up to Northern Ireland being "on track for significantly increased commercial property activity in the latter half of 2015", said CBRE.
It expected the 90,000 sq ft of offices lettings signed in the first six months of the year to be "significantly surpassed" in the second half of 2015.
The opening of the City Quays office development and the imminent start of work on City Quays 2 "is expected to see an increase in investor interest both locally and from foreign investors," said CBRE which said prime office rents in the city were now £16 per sq ft.
CBRE Belfast Brian Lavery said: “The months of July and August were relatively quiet as expected, however we still saw negotiations continue on a number of transaction which will boost activity over the coming months. We expect a repeat of the pattern for 2014 that saw a quiet H1 followed by an explosive H2.
“In addition to strengthening office and retail sectors, the investment opportunities currently on the market are very attractive, with several others due to be formally launched for sale over the coming months. Prime yields are relatively stable, allowing for a positive outlook in the latter half of the year."
