THE former headquarters of Stormont’s Department for the Economy (DfE) has been put for sale.
The Netherleigh estate has put placed on the market with offers being sought in excess of £5.75 million.
Based on Massey Avenue, close to the Stormont estate, the site includes a 19th century mansion house and a number of office buildings.
The economy department vacated the leafy east Belfast estate at the end of March 2023, moving its headquarters to Adelaide House in the city centre.
Lisney’s listing promotes the 6.4 acre site as a “redevelopment opportunity”.
It comes just days after the Department for Infrastructure’s headquarters at Clarence Court was placed on the market.
The infrastructure department is due to move out of the 180,000 sq ft office building on Adelaide Street and relocate to James House in the Gasworks business park later this year.
No guide price has been placed on the eight-storey building and the adjoining multi-storey car park, but it has been promoted as a site with “repurposing and redevelopment potential”.
It’s understood the sale of both sites follows a review of office space requirements by the Civil Service.
The original neo-classical Netherleigh House is thought to have been designed by the architect WH Lynn and built sometime between 1877 and 1883.
An apprentice and one-time partner of Sir Charles Lanyon, Lynn’s most prominent works included Queen’s University and the Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church.
Netherleigh was originally built as a 21-bedroom mansion for William Robertson of Robertson, Ferguson, Ledlie & Co, a magistrate, woollen draper and silk merchant, who operated from the Bank Buildings on Castle Place.
It was acquired by Campbell College in 1929 and was used as a preparatory school for around 40 years before it was sold in 1973.
It was later transformed into a key government site, with offices developed during the 1980s.
DfE staff continue to work out of sites in Newtownbreda, Fermanagh House on Belfast’s Ormeau Avenue and Killymeal House in Belfast’s Gasworks.
The department also closed its Career Resource Centre on Belfast’s Ann Street in late 2022.
