PLANS have been submitted for a new £18 million student accommodation block in Belfast.
Botanic Link Ltd is behind a 251-bedroom development at a vacant site located over the railway line between Botanic Avenue and University Road.
The proposal comprises 219 cluster beds and 32 studio flats, along with communal facilities and a retail/café unit on Botanic Avenue.
Following a pre-application event held last summer, plans were formally submitted on February 22 and if approved it would be the latest purpose-built student accommodation block to be built in the city.
The scheme is being spearheaded by Anthony Best, managing director of Lacuna Developments, alongside Andrew Creighton, a director at William Ewart Properties, the owners of the site. Belfast-based Manson Architects has designed the plans.
Lacuna has vast experience in the student housing market in Belfast and is behind a number of city centre schemes including Botanic Studios on the Dublin Road, Swanston House on Queen Street and the 430-bed Little Patrick Street development, due for completion later this year.
The south Belfast site has long been the subject of development, but plans have never progressed. In 1999 a culvert was built over the existing railway line to pave the way for development, but the land has remained vacant. despite planning permission approved on two separate occasions in the past 20 years for residential schemes.
The uplift in Belfast student housing has largely been motivated by the new Ulster University Campus, expected to be complete before 2022.
Once operational the new campus will see most courses transfer from Jordanstown to York Street and student numbers in the city rise from 2,000 to 15,000.
