New hotel planned for Belfast city centre

Plans are in the pipeline for a 174-bed hotel, as well as restaurants, bars and retail outlets, in Belfast city centre.

The proposed £60m scheme, which would be built on the current site of Norwich Union House on Fountain Street, has been submitted by ES NUH Ltd, which is connected to local construction firm, McAleer and Rushe.

The plan would see the demolition of Norwich Union House following by the start of work early next year on the 243,000 sq ft project.

Stephen Surphlis of ES NUH said recently that the developers were ‘delighted’ to be able to submit the plans for ‘much-needed investment’ in an area of Belfast close to the Primark Bank Buildings site, which was destroyed by fire just over a year ago. He added that the vision was to ‘bring the area to life again’ through the mixed-use scheme.

‘The Castle Street, Fountain Street and Queen Street area has great potential to become an emergent place for entrepreneurial activity and to be used as a base for leisure and business travellers visiting the city,’ continued Mr Surphlis.