Plans by a Co Antrim business family for a new 25-bedroom boutique hotel on one of Belfast’s best known streets have been approved.
The proposal by Michael Fullan’s Portglenone-based Sessia, which also involves a new bar and restaurant, was signed off by Belfast City Council on Thursday.
It could soon see an office building on Commercial Court and Donegall Street transformed into a new hospitality venue for Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.
Much of the building runs along and overlooks Belfast’s most photographed street.
Home to the Duke of York pub and its famous suspended umbrellas, the area historically known as ‘Half Bap’, is one of the most popular tourist and hospitality hotspots in Belfast.
The approved plans pave the way for a new bar and restaurant on Commercial Court, with the hotel’s main entrance also located on the famous cobbled street.
The Fullan family is principally known for its background in retail, running a large supermarket and department store in Portglenone.
The business, which was started by Pat Fullan in the 1970s, has grown into a significant independent retail operation, now run by his son Michael Fullan.
The Fullan family also run a food hall business in Rasharkin.
Although best known in the world of retail, the family is involved in hotels.
Michael Fullan’s brother Adrian is behind Black Rock Hotels, which owns both the Leighinmohr House Hotel in Ballymena and Gray’s at Bushmills, a 17-bedroom boutique hotel which opened at the site of The Smugglers Inn during 2024.
Documents submitted in support of the application suggest the new hospitality venture could create ‘dozens of new jobs’.
It states the building, designed in 1896 by William Batt, is still largely intact except for the ground floor shop façade.
But with little of the historic interior remaining, the building is not listed.
The premises facing Donegall Street are currently used as an estate agents, with offices on the upper floors, but the Commercial Court extension, which was built during the 1990s, is currently vacant.
The bid by Sessia follows a similar development by Ducales on nearby Hill Street, which redeveloped the former Housing Executive offices into The Foundry 20-bed boutique hotel.
The ground floor of the building, which was once the site of the original Harp Bar, is largely used as a bar and restaurant.
Under the north’s archaic licensing laws, a new certified hotel development, with a minimum of 15 bedrooms and an all-day food offering, can secure a license to serve alcohol.
