A £11.7 MILLION community and leisure hub, complete with gym, screening room, sauna and mood showers has risen from rubble of what was once Northern Ireland's largest British army base.
Girdwood Community Hub, in the 14-acre north Belfast site formerly occupied by the army, was officially opened yesterday by finance minister Mervyn Storey and Belfast Lord Mayor Arder Carson.
In a nod to its past, the design of the sauna even echoes the lookout post of a traditional army sanger, offering a spectacular view of the mountains overlooking north Belfast.
A week of `taster sessions' will now begin to allow people in the area to see the range of activities on offer.
Mr Storey said it had been transformed from a "contested space into a shared space".
The hub is the first development on the former barracks, with funding from the EU’s PEACE III Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), Belfast City Council and the Department for Social Development.
The opening comes after a decade of controversy about what should be done with the former barracks, which straddles what has historically been one of the most bitter interfaces in the city.
There was pressure for the entire site to be given over to social housing, which in turn prompted disputes over whether it would be allocated to the unionist or nationalist community.
Some houses are in the process of being built on the site.
In 2011, then SDLP social development minister Alex Attwood approved plans for 200 new homes on the site, which was welcomed as helping to relieve north Belfast's overwhelmingly nationalist waiting list for social housing.
However, the plans were denounced as "deeply destabilising" by unionists and immediately reversed by his DUP successor Nelson McCausland.
Mr Storey, who has just left the social development portfolio, confirmed that there was still work to do on their allocation, but said this development, which has cross-community backing, "sends out a good message".
"This is a great commitment and will give this community hope. This site has been seen as being something related to our past, to the Troubles and all of that is not transformed into an area that the community and the communities can together in," he said.
"There needed to be agreement and needed to be consensus and need to be consent for (it) to work in the community, because imposing a solution will not work.
"It has been slow and painful in terms of housing, but now progress has been made. We're not going back to the past. Yes there are still issues, still concerns that people have, it is a work in progress."
The Sinn Féin lord mayor said it was "a significant stepping stone in the revitalisation of north Belfast, and the first major outcome of Belfast City Council's ambitious plans to transform and modernise leisure provision right across our city".
"From its inception, the idea of a shared, welcoming space which everyone can enjoy has been firmly supported by communities and politicians," Mr Carson said.
"Their input has been crucial in creating a modern, vibrant building where people can access much-needed leisure and learning facilities and community services."
