In the biggest single office letting deal in the North, Halifax Direct has agreed to take a 150,000 sq ft building at Cromac Wood, on the site of Belfast's former gasworks. No rental level is being quoted by letting agents Hamilton Osborne King but it is known Halifax is insisting on a very high specification finish with floor plates as large as 50,000 sq ft. The rent is likely to be about £14 sterling per sq ft. The Halifax Direct operation will be one of the organisation's leading call centres and the scale of the deal is indicated by the fact that it will be the largest single creation of jobs attracted to the North, with between 1,500 and 2,000 expected to be employed at the centre in Cromac Wood.