Business

Landmark Belfast city centre bar set for £500k transformation, creating 40 jobs

The Apartment Bar is set to transformed into Irish American style venue 'Hell Cat Maggie's' as part of a £500,000 redevelopment, creating 40 jobs. Picture by Hugh Russell
The Apartment Bar is set to transformed into Irish American style venue 'Hell Cat Maggie's' as part of a £500,000 redevelopment, creating 40 jobs. Picture by Hugh Russell The Apartment Bar is set to transformed into Irish American style venue 'Hell Cat Maggie's' as part of a £500,000 redevelopment, creating 40 jobs. Picture by Hugh Russell

ONE of Belfast's best-known bars is set to be transformed as part of a £500,000 redevelopment, creating 40 jobs.

The Apartment Bar and Restaurant at Donegall Square West, closed to the public on Saturday, with a major program of works planned over the coming months to turn it into new Irish American style venue 'Hell Cat Maggies'.

The bar, which will also serve food, will be solely housed on the first floor of the city centre building , with the ground floor to be filled by healthy fast-food chain Freshly Chopped, due to open its doors next month.

The new Hell Cat Maggies bar is the latest development in the city from owners, the Downey Group, whose expanding portfolio includes McHughs Bar, The Kitchen Bar and The Thirsty Goat in Belfast as well as Derry venue Sugar nightclub and Downeys Bar in Magherafelt. The Group, which employs 200 people across the north, took on The Apartment in 2014 and the following year carried out a £750,000 refurbishment at the site to turn it into a cosmopolitan-style bar.

The new venture is based upon the character Hell Cat Maggie, who was 'born in Ireland and raised hell in New York'. She was a member of the infamous Irish American street gang, The Dead Rabbits, who became the largest Irish crime organization in mid 19th-century Manhattan and were the subject of the 2012 film, Gangs of New York.

Speaking to The Irish News, Michele Downey from the Downey Group, said the refurbishment of The Apartment, which first opened in 2000, is required to keep pace with the fast-moving Belfast bar scene.

"Like everything else you have to reinvent yourself and if you look around the whole city, there's hardly one bar that hasn't gone through some form of change, you look at the likes of Morrisons and McCrackens for example in recent times," she said.

"A new bar era currently exists in a vibrant busy Belfast which embraces change and celebrates all that we are proud of in Belfast.

"The proposed new venue will be a warm, welcoming traditional style bar with a range of natural woods, old style finishes and eclectic bric a brac found in original Irish pubs combined with artwork that depicts and celebrates the story of Hell Cat Maggie and her New York history.

"Premium products, old favourite tipples, Irish American inspired food and live music, the new Hell Cat Maggie’s will offer a blend of all that we love and a taste of something new."

Hell Cat Maggies is due to open in October
Hell Cat Maggies is due to open in October Hell Cat Maggies is due to open in October

Ms Downey believes the new venue can capitalise on the growing tourism market and expanding Belfast hotel infrastructure in the locality and hopes it will be open to the public by mid-October.

The development comes less than a year after the Downey Group opened popular bar and beer garden, The Thirsty Goat on the corner of Hill Street and Waring Street in the Cathedral Quarter.

Ms Downey said The Thirsty Goat has been a "revelation" since it opened in October and told The Irish News due to its success discussions have already taken place about bringing the brand to Derry.

"The Thirsty Goat has done really, really well and for the future it may be something that could travel," she said.

"We believe that with how strong the brand is, how acknowledged it is and how people the length and breadth of the country identify with it, it can be a success elsewhere. Derry is a possibility, because we already have premises there and would consider doing some development there. After that the world's our oyster, but it definitely is something we have considered."