A DECISION by Belfast City Council to refuse planning permission for a £10 million seven-storey office block next to the Ulster Hall has been overturned on appeal.
Guildford-based Domus UK’s application involves the demolition of two existing buildings at the corner of Linenhall Street and Clarence Street, to make way for a single 54,000 modern grade A office building.
In June 2021, officials in Belfast recommended that the city council’s planning committee refuse permission due to the potential impact the development could have on the character of the Linen Quarter conservation area.
The officials in Belfast concluded that the scale, height, massing, façade alignment, form and design of the Domus UK proposal, would also have an over-dominant impact on the grade A listed Ulster Hall.
But Northern Ireland’s Planning Appeals Commission has now published its determination on the appeal taken by Domus UK’s investment director Ian Layford in September 2022.
Commissioner Rosemary Daly has consented to the demolition of the existing buildings and granted full planning permission for the office development.
She found the proposed office block “does not give rise to an adverse affect on the setting of the adjacent listed building or other listed buildings in the surroundings of the appeal site”.
Summarising her conclusion, she said: “I have found that the existing buildings along both Clarence Street and Linenhall Street and the carpark do not make a positive contribution to character and appearance of the Linen Conservation Area; and that the redevelopment scheme is acceptable in that it provides an opportunity to enhance the character of the conservation.”
The planning appeals commissioner also inserted a condition to ensure improvements to the public realm around the site as part of the development.
Domus UK is ultimately owned by New York headquartered private equity firm NCH Capital.
The company originally launched its Belfast office bid before the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019. The original proposal also involved redeveloping the buildings on the Bedford Street end of the block next to the Ulster Hall.
But that end of the development has now been acquired by the Dublin-based Press Up Group, which has announced plans to turn 34-44 Bedford Street into a 91-bedroom hotel, under ‘The Dean’ brand.
Press Up is headed by Paddy McKillen Jnr, the son of one of west Belfast’s most successful businessmen, Paddy McKillen Snr, who previously owned Claridge’s hotel in London.
Although originally announced as a £10m office development, industry monitor CIS Ireland esimates the current value of the project at around £14m.
