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Fresh bid to gain planning approval for city skyscraper

Thursday, 8 January 2009

An artist?s impression of the proposed Aurora building in the centre of Belfast.

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Developers hoping to erect Northern Ireland’s tallest building have appealed to the government to overturn a planning decision to reject the £90m project.

The company behind plans for the 37-storey Aurora building in Belfast has written to Stormont ministers urging them to intervene and rescue the proposal.

McAlister Holdings said the decision to refuse the application sent out a message to investors that Belfast is closed for business.

“The Belfast Planning Office seems to have no regard for the economic benefits of the Aurora proposal and no understanding of the bigger picture for the regeneration of Belfast,” said developer Mervyn McAlister.

“The Aurora Building would act as catalyst for the social and economic regeneration of Great Victoria Street and Belfast’s once thriving Golden Mile.

“I have written to the Planning Minister (Sammy Wilson) and the First and Deputy First Ministers today appealing to the Executive to intervene and approve this planning application.

“To cast aside such a major investment sends out a hugely negative message to future investors and developers looking at Belfast.”

Planners said the proposed design did not fit in with the character of the site and surrounding area on Great Victoria Street.

But Mr McAlister claimed the application complied with every statutory requirement.

He said he had been working with planners for three years to make sure the proposal was right and accused them of getting cold feet at the last minute because of the height of the building.

“The fact is that the Aurora Building at 109 metres (358ft) is only 4.5 metres taller than the Bedford Square building which was granted planning permission on Bedford Street a few hundred yards away,” he said.

A former Divisional Planning Manager for Belfast, Professor Bill Morrison also questioned the decision to refuse the application.

“This cannot be the last word,” he said.

“Tall buildings are what one expects to see in thriving city centres and it makes sense to have people living in the heart of the city.”

While the Planning Service falls under the remit of Sammy Wilson, the Planning Appeals Commission is the responsibility of the Office of the First and Deputy First Ministers.

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No more Divis towers!

Posted by Maria | 09.01.09, 20:11 GMT

The dark days when the words investment and regeneration could be used to foist bland, uninspiring and over-intensive developments on our townscape have long gone. Belfast deserves better than this glorified tower block. It was right of the planners to refuse it!

Posted by Mr P | 09.01.09, 20:04 GMT

Lee,

No, I didn't buy an overinflated property or any property in Norn Iron for that matter. Sitting now with a nice deposit though!

I don't want to see more needless follies built in Belfast city centre, especially when they are likely to become the slums of the future! Tall buildings have there place but a small regional city is not one of them, particularly one that continues to lose population in spite of the massive building and apartment boom.

Is it sustainable to build unnecessarily tall buildings in one location (with one developer) when there remains so much vacant land and many vacant and underutilised buildings nearby - I think not.

I pity the poor developer who bought the site at the height of the market, has spent upwards on 1 million trying to get permission, and has had to watch as the property market collapses. But hey, that's showbusiness..

Posted by Peat | 09.01.09, 11:18 GMT

Great to see the planners knocking this project for 6, time for the First and Deputy ministers to back the planners,interesting to see professor Bill Morrison showing an interest in this one the last thing we need is another white elephant.

Posted by brian | 09.01.09, 00:28 GMT

The building needs to go ahead, but I also think that the prices they are trying to charge for apartments need to be dropped dramatically.
People will live in them if they are the right price but at present they are vastly inflated and have along way to fall.
Cities like Belfast, Leeds and Liverpool have seen a large number of flats come onto the market that are sitting empty. The reality is people would rather live in a house than a flat. These cities are not big enough to demand a premium for these types of properties. Afterall good quality affordable housing is only a 15 minute walk from the city centre in most of these places. cities like london are much bigger and the idea of living in a flat more appealing because commuting distances can be prohibitive otherwise.

Posted by steve | 08.01.09, 17:31 GMT

Is the problem with aurora, the fact it is not as ugly as the next tallest building on the golden mile - the City Hospital?!

Peat, do you work in the planning office? Reading your point re Curzon, I wonder if you are unfortunate to have bought one of the homes at grossly over inflated prices of the last 6 years? Sounds like it anyway. The more appartments etc, the more prices will come down regardless of social housing allocation which is in most is your point. Whats wrong with that? Surely key workers like teachers, nurses and even doctors these days deserve the right to be able to afford a house without leaving them skint for one of a better word for years to come... this feeds into other economic problems and from reading the level of economic knowledge in your comment I guess you know that.

House prices going down fast! Happy days! 30-35pc now, 50pc by end of year to 2010 by most extimates. Happy days!

Posted by Lee | 08.01.09, 16:17 GMT

They're right. It totally doesn't fit in with the area. It needs a few more boarded up windows.

You obviously would get planning permission then to build a slum...... lol

Posted by Patrick | 08.01.09, 15:13 GMT

Projects such as the Aurora development are signs that Belfast is growing as a city, we should all be excited that people want to invest in our city, but our planners apparently know better, but then again, their jobs are safe!

This area of Belfast desperately needs regeneration and new investments, the 'Golden Mile' is literally crumbling apart at the moment, Bradbury Place has empty boarded up buildings on both sides of the street, Shaftsbury Square has looked terrible since our wise city planners allowed half of the old brew buildings to be redeveloped while the other was left lying derelict and the Aurora site has been laying empty for years now.

I think the Planners have got this serioulsy wrong, and unfortunately if we are looking to politicians for hope of sorting this out, then we may as well put the 'closed for business' signs up now, the National Stadium fiasco proves how spineless these people really when it comes to economic decisions.

Posted by Steven73 | 08.01.09, 15:11 GMT

Well done the planners for once!

In no way would this scheme have promoted regeneration but might have ended up in a tidy profit for the developer (assuming he even had the money to develop it??).

Why do we need tall buildings like this when there are still vast swathes of surface level car parking in the immediate city centre, loads of empty upper floor space, not to mention the large number of empty new and old homes (almost 40,000 at last count by the UU). Perhaps schemes like the one being propmoted for Aurora actually lead to degeneration by sucking demand away from all of these other sites...

Think about it, the new Curzon apartments are going to be social housing because the private developer couldn't flog them on the market and there are 1000s of new apartments still being constructed, including the Obel, in Titanic Quarter and the Sirocco site...All of these aggregated together are going to prolong the local housing slump...just like in the south of Ireland.

Posted by Peat | 08.01.09, 14:28 GMT

Get it built there is already enough delapidation in Belfast. For example Ann Street used to be a thriving shopping area now it is almost derelict. Belfast needs new structures to promote a more positive image.

Posted by Gerry | 08.01.09, 14:27 GMT

not a suprising outcome really, 3 years of twiddling their thumbs and a distinct lack of vision.
Yet poorly cladded no-mark buildings with no design quality are being put up left right and centre.
I think planning in general needs to be completely over-hauled before they completely ruin the place.
Many of their decisions make absolutly no sense. This would be a great economic catalyst to a very shoody, run down part of "the golden mile"

Posted by darren | 08.01.09, 13:16 GMT

So this building isnt in character with its area but its ok to build the 28 storey Obel and the 15 storey boat building framing the old custom house. If the polititions turn down the appeal on this i despair for the whole open for business ethos they have been trying to promote. City centres need tall buildings to provide density of population which saves out of town commuting and Aurora is a beautiful building.

Posted by chris | 08.01.09, 10:40 GMT

That's right turn down investment at a time of economic crisis. This would have put Belfast on the map and attracted further investment. Planners don't have vision for this city. Dinosaurs.

Posted by Michael | 08.01.09, 10:22 GMT

They're right. It totally doesn't fit in with the area. It needs a few more boarded up windows.

Posted by McD | 08.01.09, 09:29 GMT

Planners said "the proposed design did not fit in with the character of the site and surrounding area on Great Victoria Street". What is the character of that part of the city? Bland two story offices? Derelict houses? Or maybe the car park on the site at the moment is much more fitting with the character of the Belfast in general. Of course backwards decisions like this don't really surprise in this city.

Posted by Paul | 08.01.09, 08:48 GMT