The Tannery building located behind Castle Court Shopping Centre is named after the former Williamson Brothers Tannery established on the site in the 1880’s. The discovery of the tannery required archaeologists onsite and therefore delayed construction for a short period.

The site had been used as a taxi depot and car park for many years until it was acquired through a government sponsored development competition. The development (Planning ref: Z/2003/887/F) significantly increased the volume of car parking and provided the provinces first purpose built taxi passenger centre, along with retail space and apartments.

The 275,000sq ft development was completed in four phases from April 2003 to October 2003. The taxi centre opened on 16 May 2003 by former Belfast Mayor, Alex Maskey. Iceland and Workout World where announced as tenants in August 2003 and opened in September 2003. Workout World (World Gym Ltd) re-located from Castle Court to quadruple the size of their store. One unit remains unoccupied (5,000sq ft) (as of July 2009).

The building was purchased by Alburn Investments in 2007 for around £25m. 


275,000sq ft 8 Storey building providing:

• 20,000 sq ft of retail space,
• 34 Apartments
• 610 Space multi-storey car park
• Basement taxi passenger centre 

Structural Engineering Consultants: Kirk McClure Morton
Structural Steelwork: Ballykine Structural Engineers Ltd
Building Services Engineers: Caldwell Partnership
Metalwork: Finton McMullan