Belfast Council to look at "possibility of vesting" stalled Tribeca development

Artist’s impression of the planned Tribeca development

Belfast City Council is to look at taking over the stalled Tribeca development in the city centre.

Belfast council’s chief executive has announced the local authority will be looking at acquiring a huge swathe of derelict Belfast City Centre property from Castlebrooke Investments, who have failed to produce any works four years after receiving the green light from councillors.

Tribeca Belfast is a £500m urban regeneration scheme on a 12-acre site located beside St Anne’s Cathedral, and bounded by Royal Avenue, Donegall Street, Lower Garfield Street and Rosemary Street.

The plans involve the pedestrianisation of North Street, a new North Street Arcade, a ten storey office block, the reduction of Writer’s Square by over 50 percent, and the introduction of new streets and green spaces. It will involve residential, business and commercial space.

Belfast council received more than 450 letters of objection to the plans and five in support when the application was made. Criticisms came from a number of organisations, including the St Anne’s Trust, who argued that a reduction in the size of Writer’s Square would create overflow on the cathedral side. Issues regarding overshadowing were also raised about the new apartment and office blocks.

At the recent Strategic Policy and Resources Committee meeting at City Hall, elected members agreed to officers carrying out further work in relation to the “possibility of vesting and/or acquisition of the Tribeca site by agreement, including seeking a valuation of the site; consideration of potential funding sources and planning considerations.”

Vesting or ‘compulsory purchase’ is acquiring land without agreement, and the council could receive power to vest the site from the Stormont Department for Communities. Compulsory purchase powers can support the delivery of a range of development, regeneration and infrastructure projects in the public interest.

Chief Executive John Walsh told the S,P and R committee that Nora Largey, the City Solicitor, had set out the process of vesting the site. He said: “There has been beyond a certain level of frustration in relation to the activity on the Tribeca site. I can’t count the number of times members have come and spoken to me individually.”

Green Councillor Brian Smyth said: “We have great concerns over its viability, and whether it will ever happen. The initial planning application came in 2017, it was passed in 2020. We have 12 acres of prime city centre site lying derelict, absolutely nothing happening to it.

“It is dragging down the rest of the city centre. There has been a lot of negative talk about the city centre in the last couple of years. When people talk to me about it, it is not through a sense of malice, or wanting to put the boot in, it is through a sense of sadness and frustration.

“We have a duty here, now, to try to push this. If Castlebrooke cannot deliver, we have to ask them what are their options to move on. This thing cannot go on.”

He said: “The site is at the Cathedral Quarter, and we know the huge cultural, social and economic impact that area has on this city. We need to find a solution here in 2024.

“Talk of redeveloping this part of the city centre goes back to 1999. To put that in context, I was in my second year of university, and Man United won the treble. Royal Avenue reminds me of Manchester United, both are worse for wear, and both need a bit of help.”

Sinn Féin Councillor Ciaran Beattie asked the Chief Executive what the financial implications for the council would be. John Walsh replied: “There will have to be an LPS evaluation of the site, we can’t be specific as to what that is. What I can say is it is unlikely that Belfast City Council in its own right would develop that.

“Probably we would be looking to retain some equity in it however. We would be looking at making some back-to-back deal with a developer.”

He added: “When you enter the vesting process, you are not compelled to pay the price they ask for, you are compelled to pay the price that it is valued at.

“I will be straight, I have been approached by other parties of developers, from both here and outside of this jurisdiction, who have asked me about that site with an active interest in it.”

SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte said: “That site sits beside an area (including) Ulster University, which cost £360 million and Belfast Stories which is £120 million, that’s half a billion pounds. We just gave planning approval the other day for 700 residential units in the city centre.

“While delays may have previously been understandable because of Covid and financing, we are now at the stage where the weather has changed.”

SDLP Councillor Séamas de Faoite said: “It raises issues generally around vacancy in the city. We need to be looking at more ways in which we as a council can be empowered to tackle vacant premises and plots within the city.

“It has an impact on our ambitious plans to actually develop Belfast. A third of the city centre has been held up in terms of any form of redevelopment because of this particular plot.”

A council report states: “Since the grant of the 2020 permission, the developer has not begun construction of the development. Whilst the developer has ownership of the vast majority of the lands within the overall site, they have had some difficulty securing certain portions of the overall lands required to develop out the scheme as per the existing planning approval.

“Whilst they have suggested potential variation of the permission to deal with those issues no such application has been received.”

Last June the council agreed unanimously to call upon Castlebrooke to present proof of work to members of the council at a meeting of its City Growth and Regeneration Committee. Castlebrooke said they would meet with party group leaders away from the public, but to date no meetings have taken place.

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