One of Northern Ireland’s largest exhibition venues could be converted to office space, a hotel or even cinema complex, according to proposals issued to potential investors.
Although the 1930s built Grade II listed King’s Hall building would remain, an invitation to would-be investors admits that much of the 16-acre Lisburn Road, Belfast, site could be commercially developed.
The Royal Ulster Agricultural Society (RUAS) — which first bought the plot in 1891 — has published a five-page tender proposal, in collaboration with commercial property firm Colliers International, offering a lease on the south Belfast site. It states the society “is seeking to secure a long-term income stream from the site and financial proposals should be on the basis of a ground rent proposal”.
Ian Duddy, the Colliers’ director who worked on the proposal, confirmed the RUAS had set a tight deadline and wanted outline approaches by the end of April. “We are throwing this open to any number of big ideas,” he added.
“We want to see what response we get. We expect to get interest from the local market, the UK and beyond, and we already have interest from further afield,” Duddy said. “Ultimately it could go for healthcare, hotel, office or business space — there’s already good access in the area.”
Whatever scheme is eventually undertaken would have to be done in sympathy with the listed status of the King’s Hall building, he admitted. Opened by the Duke of Gloucester in 1934, the hall was once the largest exhibition site in Northern Ireland and the Province’s only large concert venue. It also hosted the Balmoral Show, an annual agricultural show with regular attendances in excess of 75,000, which has now moved to the former Maze prison site near Lisburn.
Duddy conceded that it had been decades since the site has undergone any major development and that there would be “no barriers” on potential bidders, who could be offered lease agreements of anything up to 125 years.
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