New homes and unique ‘plug and play’ space unveiled with year-round ‘climate’ planned for Belfast Waterside.
Belfast Waterside unveils new homes and creative space in £400m masterplan to deliver city’s new world-class waterfront destination.
Osborne+Co (Formerly Vanguard Real Estate), a well-financed joint venture of established real estate developers, has revealed new details and a community consultation on proposals for 450 apartments, the first phase of residential development proposed at the landmark placemaking scheme.
The creation of one, two and three-bedroom apartments on the riverside site are the first of up to 750 new homes planned for Belfast Waterside, which will ultimately deliver a mix of private for sale, build to rent, social, and affordable housing.
The proposals will also include a 7,000 square metre ‘plug and play’ space – a building that adapts to the characteristics and needs of the users inside – located at the heart of the site. The space will be designed to support a vibrant digital and creative community. A focus for the business quarter within the site with support for content creation, local skills, employment and social purpose ventures. The proposals will now undertake a 12-week community consultation before submission of further planning applications.
The details were announced as Osborne+Co submitted its ‘masterplan’ application to Belfast City Council outlining its £400million vision for the site, including plans for a new bridge and a climate-sensitive design. Speaking about the progress of the Belfast Waterside scheme, Chris Kane, Chairman of Osborne+Co explained:
“Following more than a year of consultation with the community, local elected representatives and Belfast City Council we are now submitting our masterplan application. We have an ambitious placemaking strategy not just to create new office and living space, but to harness the site’s pivotal position and reconnect the city and people of Belfast with the River Lagan that runs through its heart.
“The residential proposals will help deliver much needed city centre homes with an important mix of tenures, delivered as part of a wider mixed-use masterplan containing a vibrant combination of office, hotel, retail and cultural uses. Significantly, our masterplan will deliver a new bridge to connect the city core with this emerging city destination, and the east of the city.”
“We appointed Danish architect’s Henning Larsen to bring a Nordic understanding of outdoor living to Belfast. They have carefully considered how to position and design buildings that can manage the micro-climate next to the river, to create spaces within the site that are comfortable for use all year around. They have helped us shape proposals that will allow the people of the city to share in the public space by the River Lagan, making it an attractive place to live, work and stay.”
“Each new application demonstrates our ambition to deliver on the vision for Belfast Waterside, and our strategy to turn this fantastic opportunity into one of the best places and destinations in the UK and Ireland. Each is a significant milestone that demonstrates our commitment to delivering a successful living, working, and leisure quarter in Belfast City Centre.”
The submission of the masterplan application follows a recent application for 250,000 square metre grade A office building submitted to Belfast City Council in February. A Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) for the residential and creative cluster scheme has been submitted to Belfast City Council, marking the beginning of a 12 week pre-application community consultation led by planning consultants Turley. The wider project team also includes AECOM, Big Partnership, Atkins, Henning Larsen and RPS.
Vanguard is formed of Gulf Resources Development & Investment (GRDI), in partnership with Graftongate and Jim Kelly, ex-principal of St Francis Group – and brings an international development track-record having collectively delivered c£2 billion of property projects globally.
