The cultural and heritage body for Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has urged Belfast city councillors to block a bid to renew planning approval for the controversial Tribeca scheme.
The Cathedral Quarter Trust (CQT) has formally objected to Castlebrooke Investments’ bid to renew four applications for its stalled development, and urged others to do likewise.
The charity, which includes trustees from the arts, hospitality and business community, as well as Ulster University and Belfast Cathedral, said it believes the English firm “has no intention of beginning work”.
A company jointly owned by Castlebrooke boss Neil Young has been granted approval for more than 40 planning applications since it announced a £500 million regeneration scheme in 2017.
Seven years on and no meaningful work has taken place within the 12 acre site, which is bounded by Royal Avenue and Donegall Street, with the five year time limit already expired in some cases.
Many more approval notices are set to expire over the coming months.
Project Goat re-entered the planning process in March 2024, seeking permission to renew four of its lapsed approvals.
In a letter, sent to Belfast City Council’s planning department on behalf of its trustees, the charity said it “cannot stand on the side-lines and allow one developer to dictate the pace and type of development, or non-development”.
The letter adds: “The Cathedral Quarter Trust is forced to conclude that the current owner, Castlebrooke Investments, has no intention of beginning work to deliver on the planning permission it received.
“If Belfast City Council simply renews Castlebrooke’s planning application after seven years of inaction, this suggests an acceptance that the Cathedral Quarter will not be developed, and that dereliction is the permitted policy of the day.”
The intervention from the charity follows a campaign launched by heritage conservationists to return the historic Assembly Rooms to public ownership.
It’s understood that Belfast City Council is also examining the scope for potentially vesting parts of the Tribeca site.
The four renewal applications submitted by Project Goat centre on the area of the Tribeca scheme known as ‘phase 1B’, which is located between Royal Avenue, North Street and Rosemary Street.
It includes 100,000 sq ft of offices, along with retail, hospitality and community space.
The ownership of Project Goat is shared between Neil Young and Revcap Advisors, a London firm founded by Grimsby Town FC co-owner, Andrew Pettit.
The latest accounts for Project Goat Ltd, which relocated to Sheffield in 2022, show the company owed its creditors £109.3m at the end of June 2023.
The debt largely relates to a £40m loan and associated ‘loan accruals’, granted by SHIV IV Lending 802 Sarl, a Luxembourg entity, of which Mr Pettit is a director.
Castlebrooke was contacted for comment.
