The race for prime space in and around Belfast's mooted cultural quarter beside St Anne's Cathedral is picking up serious pace with a number of major deals completed recently.
Hamilton Osborne King's Belfast office reports strong interest in the Northern Bank building at 2 Waring Street, at the city centre-side gateway to the "Cathedral Quarter", as the area is now branded. Designed by Belfast's leading 19th-century architect, Charles Lanyon, it had a guide price of £700,000 sterling and offers are understood to have reached double that figure. It is expected 2 Waring Street will have restaurant or bar use on the ground floor and office or other use on the upper floors. It is also adjacent to the proposed £400 million mixed shopping centre complex planned by the development coalition of Dunloe Ewart, MEPC and John Lang.
The Belfast pub operators, Jaz Mooney, are understood to be planning a major pub directly across from the Northern Bank building in the ground floor of the Northern Whig building in Waring Street. HOK has also completed the sale of Northern House, in High Street just around the corner from the Cathedral Quarter. The 28,066 sq ft building has a rental of £257,450 from ground floor retail and upper floor offices. It is understood it made well in excess of the £2 million asking price.
Another major building to change hands in the same vicinity is River House, one of the city's major 1960s offices, in High Street. It is understood to have made about £7 million through agents Richard Ellis Gunne.
At the beginning of August, HOK achieved a price reported to be around £5 million for Arnott House, again a substantial office building with ground floor retail and frontage on to both Waring Street and High Street. HOK also sold another nearby office building, Marlborough House, in Victoria Street. It is understood a private local investor paid in £2.125 million for the 20,000 sq ft 1960s office building. This represents a yield of 8.25 per cent.
Commenting on the sales in the Cathedral area, Robert Ditty of HOK's Belfast office said: "Over the last six months there has been substantial investor activity in the Belfast market place and this factor, coupled with a shortage of current opportunities, is resulting in record prices being achieved for open market sales.
"This particular area of Belfast has witnessed substantial investor and developer activity in recent months. All these properties currently agreed for sale have achieved figures well in excess of the initial asking prices."
The sales are expected to further stimulate interest as Laganside, which is sponsoring the Cathedral Quarter development and investing strongly in the area, releases sites for development briefs.
