BELFAST planning officials have paved the way for a new 164-bed hotel in the former Nambarrie Tea building in the city’s Cathedral Quarter.
Essex-based investment vehicle Propiteer has backed the hospitality venture, which is to be operated by Moxy, the hotel brand owned by Marriott.
The developer last year reversed plans to demolish the building after a request from Belfast City Council. The plans now involve erecting a three-storey extension to include a new ‘sky bar’. A ground floor bar-restaurant will also be developed.
The company, which bought the property on the corner of Victoria Street and Waring Street for around £2.5m, is expected to invest around £20m in the project.
Brendan Duddy Jnr and his brother Lawrence, of the Derry-based Duddy Group, have previously confirmed their involvement in the project.
Propiteer said, subject to planning approval, it expects to start work in the third quarter of 2022, with the project lasting 18-21 months.
It comes just weeks after the Unite union confirmed it will reoccupy the nearby Transport House by the end of 2023.
The recommendation to approve the hotel plans will go before Belfast City Council’s planning committee on June 14.
Propiteer was co-founded by investor Dave Marshall and Colin Sandy, a former finance director at Lord Alan Sugar's Amshold Group.
Its Northern Ireland property portfolio is largely centred in Derry and was built in the wake of the post-2008 property crash, when it acquired a number of distressed assets from banks.
It includes a 116-room Holiday Inn Express and the Quayside shopping centre on Derry’s Strand Road.
