Business

Controversial £500m Belfast Tribeca scheme granted outline planning approval

A digitally rendered image of how Donegall Street could look after the completion of Castlebrooke's Tribeca project. The reduction of Writer's Square remains a contentious issue for campaigners.
A digitally rendered image of how Donegall Street could look after the completion of Castlebrooke's Tribeca project. The reduction of Writer's Square remains a contentious issue for campaigners. A digitally rendered image of how Donegall Street could look after the completion of Castlebrooke's Tribeca project. The reduction of Writer's Square remains a contentious issue for campaigners.
By Ryan McAleer

OUTLINE planning permission has been granted for a £500 million scheme to develop a significant area of Belfast city centre, despite objections from heritage and cultural circles.

Castlebrooke Investments’ revised application received the backing of planning officials in Belfast late last year.

But concerns around social housing, open spaces and built heritage delayed the formal approval by Belfast City Council’s planning committee until Wednesday night.

After several hours of discussion, the committee approved the plans by eight votes to five.

Castlebrooke’s scheme seeks the demolition and/or redevelopment of buildings across ten acres between Royal Avenue and the Cathedral Quarter, replacing it with a mixture of offices, retail buildings and residential schemes.

The restoration of North Street Arcade “in a new format” is also included.

The decision has been welcomed by Belfast Chamber chief executive Simon Hamilton.

"This £500m investment will create 600 jobs during construction and 1,600 when finished and regenerate this important part of the city,'' he said. 

''It's a much needed boost for the Belfast economy.”

Agustina Martire, acting chair of the Save CQ campaign said that while Castlebrooke Investments had made some concessions, she said the Tribeca proposal remains “fundamentally flawed”.

In a statement, the group said: “We raised a number of planning policy violations and misrepresentations of key information in planning reports in our deputation to the committee, but it seems that higher political priorities were at work here.

“The current scheme relies heavily on Grade A offices and one bedroomed residential accommodation - the former which is likely to go the same way as the retail sector and the latter which is unsustainable if we want to create a resilient city.

“Over the past 3.5 years, Save CQ has generated thousands of objections against the Tribeca proposals and while we did not get the final result we wanted tonight, we are proud to have awakened many ordinary citizens and politicians to the issues of good urbanism which we have raised in opposition. We hope that this will be beneficial for the wider city and future developments.”