Plans being mulled for nearly 180-bedroom hotel close to courts in Belfast city centre

The idea is to transform Centre House, currently an office block, into a 176-room hotel spanning seven floors.

The office block stands at 69-87 Chichester Street.

There is no formal planning application submitted yet. Instead papers lodged with Belfast City Council’s planning committee say that pre-application discussions (PAD) have now concluded.

This is where developers talk to planners about the proposals ahead of a full application; basically, it indicates that an application is likely to follow.

The plans would include a dining room, bar, gym, and business suite.

It would also change the use of the ground floor from a cafe to a retail unit, plus space for the hotel entrance.

There is currently permission for a hotel there, but it is smaller: 146 bedrooms, spread over five floors.

The applicant was Kilmona Property Limited, and the approval was granted in 2023 despite concerns from NI Water that there was not enough wastewater capacity to handle it (specifically, NI Water had said “the public system cannot presently serve this development proposal without significant risk of environmental harm”).

In assessing the plans for the 146-bedroom hotel in 2023, Belfast City Council officials said it “will not have any significant impact” on office space in the city centre, because “there is still well over one million sq ft of office space still available in Belfast city centre, and with take up still below the five-year average, there are no concerns for office supply” in the medium term.

It added that “it is not financially viable to refurbish the upper floors in Centre House as offices” and “nor is it viable to refurbish for housing”.

Therefore the hotel plans were an alternative to “having an empty building for several years and contributing nothing to the business function in the city centre”.