The former Belfast headquarters of two Stormont departments are on the cusp of being sold, netting millions of pounds for the public purse.
The sale of the Department for Infrastructure’s former base at Clarence Court on Adelaide Street, and the Department for the Economy’s Netherleigh House estate, has now been agreed, a spokesperson for the Department of Finance has confirmed.
The sale has also been agreed for the six-storey Victoria Hall building on May Street, which had been used by the Department of Finance.
All three sites were put up for sale earlier this year.
The asset sell-off followed a major review of government properties in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and hybrid working era, which backed a 40% reduction in the civil service office estate.
The buyers for the valuable publicly owned office assets have not yet been disclosed.
The 6.4-acre Netherleigh House site, which sits in the leafy residential Massey Avenue next to the Stormont estate, had been marketed for £5.75 million, while Victoria Hall had been listed for £2.75m.
No guide price was included for the eight-storey Clarence Court building, which is considered the most lucrative of the civil service assets placed on the market.
The 148,000 sq ft office building, which comes with its own 261 space multi-storey car park, occupies one acre of Belfast’s most recognised commercial district.
It had been marketed by Lisney as a refurbishment, repurposing or redevelopment opportunity.
The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) is currently relocating to James House in the Gasworks business park.
It’s understood DfI has a target of vacating Clarence Court by the end of July.
The Department for the Economy vacated the Netherleigh House site at the end of April 2023, moving its main hub of operations to Adelaide House in the city centre.
However, Netherleigh’s 19th century mansion and the adjacent office buildings have been put to other uses in the interim.
The former Department for the Economy offices were transformed into a PSNI station for the second series of the BBC’s popular ‘Blue Lights’ drama.
In an interview with Time Out magazine, Blue Lights co-creator Adam Patterson compared the former Stormont offices to “a LEGO house”, stating, “we could break corridors down, shoot with a lot more depth, and follow characters around like in The West Wing”.
Meanwhile the Department of Finance has also confirmed the former social security office in Cookstown was sold in April 2024.
The sale of the Fairhill Road property comes eight years after its closure was first proposed.