PLANS have been submitted for a new multi-million pound office development in Belfast city centre.
An outline planning application has been submitted for the project, which covers a one and a quarter acre site between Gresham Street and Winetavern Street in the Smithfield area of the city, currently being used as a car park.
Ahead of the application being lodged Bywater Properties and Ashmour held a successful community consultation on the mixed-use project under the working title Building Blocks, with around 200 people giving their views at a series of drop in sessions held at the listed former Butcher’s building on the corner of Gresham Street and North Street.
The regeneration scheme includes a mix of contemporary office spaces, co-working space and workshops for small, local businesses, as well as significant improvements to the current public realm.
The overall 235,000 sq ft development includes a “world-class” 115,000 sq ft eight-storey office block, known as the ‘Mill Building’ and a smaller four-storey office development, ‘The Gresham Street Building’. The plans also include affordable space for start-up business in ‘Sawtooth Studios’.
Theo Michell and Patrick O’Gorman from developers Bywater Properties and Ashley Stewart from Ashmour reiterated that the project represents a long-term investment born of their confidence in Belfast’s future, which will also take inspiration from the area’s past.
“We were pleased with the overwhelmingly positive response to the illustrative vision we set out through the consultation process. We set out a strong set of core guiding principles for the scheme and we were encouraged by the feedback from the community to our plans," Mr Mitchell said
“We have taken on board the views expressed and now look forward to engaging with the city planners to move the project on to the next phase."
Bywater and Ashmour will now engage with Planning Service and hope to receive approval by the first quarter of next year.
If approved, up to 650 construction jobs will be created in the build phase of the project and once completed the proposed office accommodation will have space for up to 1,500 people.
Speaking to The Irish News in August, Patrick O'Gormon from Bywater Properties said he is hopeful the scheme will be operational, in at least some form, in 2021, and will be a “business ecosystem” in the heart of the city taking inspiration from the likes of Manchester’s Northern Quarter and The Lanes in Brighton.
“We want to reinvigorate this part of the city into a vibrant, interconnected neighbourhood where independent retailers, coffee shops and local family businesses sit side by side with big international employers and their millennial workforce,” he said yesterday.
“Smithfield was historically a thriving hub of trade in Belfast and our plans aim to make it a trading heart in the city once again. We respect the city’s heritage and culture and we want to preserve Smithfield’s character and the life that’s already there while investing to rejuvenate an area that has suffered from chronic under investment for many years,” Mr Stewart added.
More information on the proposals can be found at: https://buildingblocksbelfast.com
