More than 700 jobs are set to be created in an £85 million sterling development in east Belfast, it was announced today.
A planning application was submitted for a mixed-use scheme on the 16-acre former site of the Sirocco engineering works, which has lain idle for a number of years.
The development on the banks of the River Lagan will involve residential accommodation, offices and the largest shopping outlet in the east of the city.
The project - backing on to the sometimes troubled nationalist Short Strand area - is being carried out by a locally owned consortium that bought the site from Dublin-based Dunloe Ewart when it sold off its portfolio of northern development sites.
Speaking on behalf of developers Brunswick Sirocco, Mr Acheson Elliott said: "We plan to create a lively, mixed development that will be both complementary to the city centre and, in its uses, provide a great service to those that live in the environs of the city centre and beyond."
British supermarket chain Safeway has been signed up as anchor tenant for a 92,000-square-foot store. There will be a further five retail outlets in retail warehousing of 85,000 square feet.
The developers said the potential takeover of Safeway by the Yorkshire-based Morrisons supermarket chain would not affect the deal.
Safeway said it had been looking at the site for some time and believed it was a great location for a supermarket.
If planning and construction go according to schedule, it is estimated that the retail element of the scheme will be open for business before the end of 2005.