Fountain House

Last Update: 3 Jan 2022 | General Update

A five-storey building at 17-21 Donegall Place and extending along Fountain Lane to 18-26 Fountain Street. Designed by Young & Mackenzie and built 1935 – 1937 to provide two ground floor retail units and offices above. The building was named Moore House as the site was previously occupied by James Moore Ltd, manufacturers of stationary, including account books, lithography, type printing and engraving. The building was later renamed Fountain House.

Clothing retailer Etam occupied no.17 from at least 1943 until relocating to 51-53 Donegall Place in 1997. Chocolate retailer Thornton’s occupied no. 21 from c1986 until c2002.

Deramore Property Group submitted a planning application (Z/1997/2189) in March 1997 proposing to carry out alterations to the shop frontages but the application was later withdrawn in June 1997.

Deramore Holdings Ltd submitted a planning application (Z/2001/2278/O) in July 2002 proposing to redevelop the building to provide a retail unit at ground and first floor levels with storage at new second and third floor levels. The application proposed to replace the four upper floors with three new floors whilst retaining the external stonework facades. The application was approved in October 2002.

Redevelopment commenced in 2005 and involved demolition of the interior structure whilst retaining the listed façade. Works were completed in July 2007 and on 2 November 2007 clothing retailer New Look opened a new 48,000 ft2 store. New Look Retailers Ltd agreed a 20 year FRI lease from June 2007 at £990,000 p/a. DTZ McCombe Pierce acted for Deramore and CBRE for New Look.

M&G Property Portfolio acquired the building for £13.4m in August 2014.

The building was listed in 1990 and later de-listed in 2015 (HB26/50/197).

Colliers placed the building on the market in March 2017 with offers sought in excess of £14,250,000.

New Look closed the Fountain House store in November 2018.

Primark acquired the building during December 2018 and opened a second Belfast location at Fountain House on 16th April 2019. The 24,000ft2 store was in response to the Bank Buildings fire in August 2018.