Jennings firm acquires House Belfast out of administration

The boutique hotel House Belfast, located on Botanic Avenue in the city’s Queen’s Quarter, has been acquired out of administration by a company owned by Belfast developer TJ Jennings, several months after the property’s leasehold was brought to market for £500,000.

In March 2025, CBRE Northern Ireland launched the sale of the leasehold interest in the 31-bedroom hotel, inviting offers “in the region of £500,000” for the remaining term and fixtures and fittings. Operated at the time by Botanic Way Ltd, part of Dublin-based hospitality group Nolaclan, the venue was marketed as a “well-established boutique hotel in a prime Belfast location,” offering a restaurant, multiple bars, café space and function rooms.

Alan Clancy, owner of Nolaclan, said at the time that House Belfast had become “a prominent part of the city’s hospitality landscape,” while CBRE’s Lisa McAteer described the sale as an opportunity to acquire a successful asset in a growing sector.

In August 2025, Botanic Way Ltd entered administration. Documents filed by KPMG show that the business was sold shortly afterwards to Havana Trading No. 3 Ltd, a company ultimately controlled by TJ Jennings and his family, who also own the property’s freehold. The total consideration recorded in the administrator’s report was £331,012, consisting of £65,000 in cash and the remainder largely reflecting rental arrears owed to the landlord.

KPMG’s filing valued the hotel’s fixtures and fittings at £60,000, stock at £4,994, and the intellectual property, including the House Belfast brand, social-media accounts and licences, at £1. The report states that the transaction enabled the business to continue trading, with the majority of staff retained. It also lists 52 unsecured creditors owed just over £900,000.

Originally trading as Madison’s Hotel, the Botanic Avenue property was purchased by Jennings from NAMA in 2016 for around £1.75 million and subsequently leased to Nolaclan, which invested approximately £2 million in a full refurbishment and rebranding as House Belfast in 2017.