TWO new investors are now pressing ahead with a £55 million student accommodation project close to Ulster University’s new Belfast city centre campus.
Banbridge-based Lotus Property, which owns The Boulevard and The Junction shopping outlets, has taken on the major development project with LDS Devco after acquiring the former Marsh’s Biscuit Site opposite St Patrick’s Church on Donegall Street last year.
LDS Devco is run by BA Components’ co-founder Brian McCracken and Scottish investor Gerald McGladery.
Planning permission is already in place for a 620-bed student scheme on the site, with 54 car parking spaces. That permission is due to expire in November 2022.
After unsuccessful bids to replace the car park, and introduce a gym, cinema room and theatre kitchen, the new developers have lodged a brand new planning application with some significant changes.
The £55m proposal from Lotus and LDS Devco is now seeking permission to build 724 student accommodation units on the site.
An online consultation process was completed last month, with a fresh planning application lodged with Belfast City Council within the past two weeks.
The site, once tied with the controversial £300m Belfast Northside regeneration scheme, has proved controversial for residents in Carrick Hill and other neighbouring areas.
A partnership between developer Kevin McKay, construction firm Balfour Beatty and Stormont’s former Department for Social Development (DSD), Belfast Northside had proposed as many as 3,000 residential units, mostly for students on the northern edge of Belfast city centre.
But DSD pulled out of the project in 2016 amid opposition from concerned residents groups.
Belfast City Council also rejected Northside Regeneration Ltd’s bid for 710 student accommodation units on the site in mid-2016.
The developer successfully took its case to the Planning Appeals Commission, securing permission in November 2017 for a 620-bed student scheme along with 54 car parking spaces.
The site, once home to Marsh’s Biscuit factory until it was destroyed in a 1905 fire, has served as a car park for the past 20 years.
The Carrick Hill Residents Association has previously cited its concerns with what it described as “an overload” of large student blocks in the area.
The group has long campaigned for additional social housing in the area.
Lotus and LDS Devco said their proposed development will bring the vacant site back to viable use.
Describing it as “a key city centre gateway site’, the investors said it will involve up to 180 construction roles, and allow “students to live more sustainably and reduce car usage”.
