Belfast: Athletic Stores to be converted to student accommodation

Converting the Athletic Stores building into student flats will represent an investment of around £15m

A Victorian warehouse in Belfast city centre that had been threatened with demolition is now set to be converted into student accommodation.

The Athletic Stores building on Queen Street has been bought by a joint venture between Welsh firm Watkin Jones and Holywood's Lacuna Developments.

They are converting the former Belfast Metropolitan College building at College Square East into student flats.

The development will represent an investment of around £15m.

The Athletic Stores project will involve linking it to the former Parson & Parsons shop on Wellington Place.

Detailed plans have yet to be produced but the development will mean retaining the buildings rather than demolishing them.

The scheme is likely to deliver around 300 accommodation places.

Conservation

The developers have begun pre-planning application discussions and are holding a public engagement event at the former Parson & Parsons premises on 22 June.

Heritage campaigners had fought to prevent the demolition of the Athletic Stores building after plans to replace it with an apartment block were drawn up in 2009.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society brought successful judicial review proceedings in 2010 and 2014.

The 19th century building, originally called Swanston's linen warehouse, sits in a conservation area but is not listed.

There are currently plans for almost 4,000 student 'beds' to be developed in Belfast over the next few years, but it is not certain that will all be delivered.

The first of the new purpose built student flats, a small scheme at Mark Royal House on Donegall Street, is due to completed by August.