Development of Castle Court

Plans for CastleCourt were largely approved in 1985 and soon after the developer demolished the Grand Central Hotel to make way for the development. The remaining land not owned by John Laing was acquired through vesting orders issued in 1986. The developer began construction on the 8.4 acre site in 1988 following the approval of £10m from the DOE’s Urban Development Grant. The DOE spent a further £5m on developing the Royal Avenue and Millfield area.

The Department of Health and Social Services acquired 165,000sq ft of the office space upon completion in 1990 to accommodate 700 civil servants.

John Laing later sold the centre to an English property company called MEPC in 1994 for an estimated £80.5m.

In February 1996 the Northern Ireland Audit Office issued a press release stating that none of the £10m grant from the DOE to John Laing could be recovered. The main finding of the report into the issue by the Audit Office are as follows:

The absence of any grant recovery despite the favourable sale value was due primarily to DOE's inability to invoke clawback on any sale in years three to five after project completion. The Report notes that this was a fundamental weakness because without clawback on sale the taxpayer could not benefit no matter what level of surplus was achieved.

DOE had envisaged that the main opportunity to obtain clawback would be two years after project completion. The fact that there was no surplus at that stage was, in the Department's view, due to unforeseen and exceptional market circumstances caused by a recession at the time. However, the Report notes that the whole point of clawback is to provide a mechanism to counteract uncertainty, and arrangements should have been capable of ensuring a fair return over a full five-year period.

Initial drafts of the Agreement with the Developer included a provision for clawback for a full five-year period but the final version effectively reduced this to two years. The Audit Office notes that DOE files contained no explanation as to why this line was pursued despite the serious misgivings expressed by the Consultants.


Sale / Change of Owners

Castle Court developer John Laing sold the shopping centre to an English property company called MEPC in 1994 for an estimated £80.5m. 

In 2000 the Australian shopping centre group Westfield entered the UK market and acquired a share of Castle Court alongside MEPC. 

In 2002 Hermes Real Estate purchased MEPC's stake in Castle Court.

In 2007 it was reported that Hermes attempted to sell its 50% stake in Castle Court to Ewart Properties but the deal collapsed.

In 2009 Castle Court was put on the market with an estimated value of £350m. 

Two years later in June 2011 the complex was again offered for sale on the open market by owners Westfield and Hermes. The market value in 2011 had significantly decreased to approximately £170m. In 2011 the centre provided 350,000 sq ft of retail space and earned approximately £13m per year in rent. 

It was reported that a bid by Land Securities and another bid from a joint venture between private equity company Blackstone and investors Catalyst Capital were both rejected by the owners of Castle Court. Both bids were reportedly around £140m.

In February 2012 it was reported that part owner of Castle Court, Hermes Real Estate, has taken full control of the centre. The buy out of Westfield's share in Castle Court came in a £400m deal that included two other shopping centres in England. The price paid by Hermes to acquire Westfield's 33% share of Castle Court has yet to be reported. 


Refurbishment

Following the acquisition of Castle Court in 2000 by Westfield a £9m refurbishment project was carried out in 2004 and fully completed in February 2005. The centre remained open during this period of redevelopment which involved the updating of the existing food court and the addition of 8 new food outlets and an additional cafe area overlooking Royal Avenue (let to Starbucks). Additional improvements were made to the entrance area, car park, mall areas and customer facilities. The architects for the refurbishment were Todd Architects who received £5.5m for their work. 


Proposed Extension

In August 1999 MEPC UK Ltd and John Laing Property Ltd submitted a proposal to Belfast City Councils Development Committee to extend CastleCourt. The project involved the creation of an extension to the back of centre covering the existing Smithfield Market and running from Millfield, out to North Street and back along Winetavern Street to Castlecourt. However the developers at the time had little ownership of the land required for the extension. The extension aimed to provide an extra retail units, a department store and 1,423 extra parking spaces, amounting to an investment of over £100m (2001 estimate: £200m).

In December 2001 plans were publically aired about the proposed extension of CastleCourt into the Smithfield area to the rear of the current centre. Under the plans the Council owned Smithfield market would be relocated to either Chapel Lane or Bank Square. The plans have so far not progressed any further due to the Governments decision to grant preferred status to Victoria Square and soon after completion of Victoria Square the Royal Exchange development was selected as the next area to receive Government backing for a major retail expansion of the city centre.


Planning application for the proposed extension to CastleCourt

Z/2002/0572/F Pending
Date of Applicaton: 08-Mar-2002 Date of Decision:
Lands adjacent to and including Castlecourt Shopping Centre, bounded by North Street, Millfield, Francis Street, Berry Street and Royal Avenue, Belfast

Extension to the Castlecourt Shopping Centre including class 1 retail, class 2 financial services, class 3 business use, class 16 leisure, food courts and restaurants, associated car parking and service areas.


In January 2008 Belfast City Council were informed….
" ....that correspondence had been received from Planning Service Headquarters indicating that an application in relation to the extension of Castlecourt Shopping Centre, associated car parking and service areas, together with work to reconfigure Castle Court Shopping Centre and car parking facilities had been withdrawn."

Castle Court Facts

Currently -
·   96 retail units (77 units on opening in 1990)
·   320,000sq ft of retail space
·   170,000sq ft of office space
·   1,577 parking spaces

Proposed extension to CastleCourt -
·   410,000sq ft extra retail space
·   A second anchor department store
·   Leisure (30,800sq ft)
·   Restaurants (8,000sq ft)
·   1,423 additional parking spaces
 

Cost Management: Bruce Shaw
Stone Mason: A Robinson
2004 Refurbishment Architect: Todd Architects