The Green Party has asked officials at Belfast City Council to examine compulsorily purchasing 12 acres of the city centre – almost a quarter of its retail core. It would be extraordinary if the council pursued this option but drastic measures must be put on the table, if only to concentrate minds on what may be the single worst development blight afflicting any city on the island of Ireland.
The site, known as the North East Quarter, has become derelict over almost three decades as one developer after another has tried to amass a continuous plot of land plus the finance and permission to regenerate it. Each attempt has taken so long that economic changes have rendered the developer’s vision obsolete.
The result is akin, in Dublin terms, to the eastern side of O’Connell Street and everything for two blocks behind it falling down — or burning down.
The first attempt to regenerate the area, begun in 1999, would have been based around an enormous shopping centre
A particularly notorious 2004 fire destroyed an Art Deco shopping arcade, the North Street Arcade, at the heart of the North East Quarter. Restoring it is one of the many expensive planning conditions attached to a site that contains some of Belfast’s most historic and dilapidated buildings.
The first attempt to regenerate the area, begun in 1999, would have been based around an enormous shopping centre. Within a few years, it was clear Belfast had enough such projects. The second attempt, from 2006, would have been more varied but still retail-led, anchored by a huge department store. British retailer John Lewis was often mentioned, despite insisting it wanted an out-of-town location.
The latest attempt, begun in 2016, was to have fewer shops and more offices. Online shopping and working from home have since reduced the demand for both. The developer, Castlebrooke Investments Ltd, has sought to adjust the project by reducing its social housing obligation and claiming more of a public square in front of St Anne’s Cathedral. This has led to a stand-off with Stormont’s housing department, dropping a spanner into the complex bureaucracy of development in Northern Ireland. Another Stormont department approves major projects and devises planning policy and area master plans. Councils grant detailed planning permission and have a wide regeneration remit, yet they are remarkably powerless compared to counterparts in Britain and the Republic — they are not even responsible for urban streets and pavements.
Castlebrooke has expressed frustration with the deadlock, while councillors have complained about a lack of communication from Castlebrooke. The company is perhaps better thought of as a broker of development opportunities: it builds nothing itself and has a small portfolio of significant completed projects. Speculation is growing that another cycle of the North East Quarter saga is drawing to a close.
Regenerating the area has been estimated to require £500m (€578m) of investment but the site could change hands for under £40m
The next cycle will presumably be based around purpose-built student accommodation, which has mushroomed across central Belfast since Ulster University opened a new campus. Although provision could double at current demand, the economy will probably have changed again by the time the next scheme is put together.
Regenerating the area has been estimated to require £500 million (€578 million) of investment but the site could change hands for under £40 million. Belfast City Council has this sum in reserves, as the Greens have mischievously noted. Private development remains the only realistic way forward, however, given the limits of local government power in Northern Ireland.
Green Cllr Brian Smyth believes a fundamental problem has been grand plans to regenerate the site in one go. “It needs to be done in stages, in three or four phases”, he said.
Quite apart from practicality, this would “give people hope”. He is confident developers would be interested in the project under these terms.
Developers should not be condemned for ambition or wanting to make a profit but neither can there be endless patience with counterproductive grandiosity
Other problems have contributed to the disaster. Northern Ireland’s planning laws and property taxes reward leisurely land-banking. While planning permission is meant to expire after five years, it can be kept valid indefinitely with token effort. Scope to enforce maintenance and attach conditions to planning approval has barely been explored. Empty commercial buildings receive a 50 per cent tax reduction and derelict buildings can qualify for exemption. In Britain, these reliefs were scrapped a decade ago, with councils allowed to levy punitive charges.
Developers should not be condemned for ambition or wanting to make a profit but neither can there be endless patience with counterproductive grandiosity. Stormont and Belfast City Council share the blame. Both have been repeatedly attracted to the apparent simplicity of grand schemes. Both depend on property taxes as their only serious revenue-raising power. They have gradually transferred the burden from residential to commercial property, as this upsets fewer voters. Both continue to see town centres as the juiciest targets, accelerating the high street’s decline. Belfast’s empty quarter is a monument to their folly.