Hotel operator Hastings, which co-owns the Merrion Hotel in Dublin, has been granted planning permission to develop a £30 million luxury 200 bedroom hotel in the tallest commercial building on the island of Ireland.

Belfast City Council’s planning committee has approved the application from Hastings for the refurbishment and extension of Windsor House in Bedford Street into a 200-bedroom hotel with restaurant and bar facilities. The hotel will also include will also include 16 serviced apartments and new ground floor retail units, as well as refurbished office space on the upper floors of the 24-storey building.

Windsor House is 80m high, with 22 storeys, about a third higher than Liberty Hall in Dublin. The building was acquired by Hastings for £6.5 million (€9 million)from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) in May.

Nama seized the building, which was developed by a consortium including Glenkerrin's Ray Grehan, in 2012 when it appointed receivers over the assets of a business called Lauderdale Properties.

Under the proposals, the ground to 15th floors of Windsor House will be converted into new hotel accommodation, with the serviced apartments taking up the 16th and 17th floors. Existing office units on the 18th to 22nd floors will be retained and extended, while part of the ground floor podium at the front and side of the existing building will be demolished and rebuilt to form a new entrance to the hotel.

Hastings, which currently operates a number of well-known hotels in the north, including the Europa in Belfast, and Slieve Donard in Down, expects to create 150 jobs following the redevelopment of Windsor House.