It was announced today that ‘One Bankmore Square’ – a major new office scheme at the Movie House cinema site on Belfast’s Dublin Road – has been granted planning permission by Belfast City Council. 
 
The cost of developing the building and Bankmore Square, is estimated to be approximately £65m, with the creation of over 570 construction jobs in the process.
 
The building will have enough space to accommodate up to 3,000 office workers across its 12 floors. The lower floor plates will comprise of 25,000 square feet of net useable space – a layout that proves popular with office occupiers – and the upper floors will extend to 15,000 sq ft with a large wraparound roof terrace on the 9th floor.  
 
The building, when complete, will extend to 250,000 sq ft of Grade A office space – complete with 8,000 sq ft of ground floor space for ancillary retail uses – and will become the largest single office building in Northern Ireland. In addition, as part of the overall offering, there is potential for the scheme to include a Movie House Cinema.
 
The Richland Group lodged the planning application for One Bankmore Square in March 2017 after over a year of intensive design by the professional team and eight months of engagement with the planners, its consultees and public consultation events. 
 
One Bankmore Square’s pivotal location is a 3-minute walk from Belfast City Hall and the new £250 million Transport Hub for Belfast. A key element of the proposal is the transformation of Bankmore Square into a focal public open space with potential for an outdoor cinema and public art exhibitions.
 
Head of Office Agency at Savills, Simon McEvoy says, "One Bankmore Square has taken on a life of its own and quite unusually for an office development, it has really caught the public’s imagination, which is great as central to the design has always been to take advantage of the opportunity to ‘place-make’ with the reinvigoration of Bankmore Square and continue the regeneration of Dublin Road, one of Belfast’s most important thoroughfares."

Source: www.businessworld.ie