Northern Ireland’s Carvill Group has submitted a masterplan for a redevelopment of a major brownfield site in Belfast.

The housebuilder’s plans for the former Sirocco engineering site on the eastern side of the River Lagan comprise a mixed-use development including: 5,000 apartments; retail space including a supermarket and cafes and restaurants; offices; a 5-star hotel; leisure facilities; a care home; and a nursery.

Waterfront regeneration
The £600m scheme will take an estimated 10 years to build and forms part of the city’s east bank waterfront regeneration in conjunction with the development of the Odyssey leisure arena.

Carvill bought the site in September last year from William Ewart Properties and joint venture partner Snoddens for around £40m in a record price for a development site.

Masterplan
The site, which is near the Short Strand area of Belfast, was sold with existing planning consent for 266 flats on 3 acres. It was originally earmarked for a commercial scheme but poor market conditions for office lettings and planning problems prevented development from going ahead. The Northern Ireland Planning Service is still considering the application for an ASDA superstore on the site.

Once the masterplan for the 16 acre site has been agreed with the planning service it will form the basis for a series of planning applications for different phases of the site – the first of which will be submitted early next year.

Turley Associates is lead planning adviser.

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