The North's new Minister for the Environment, Mr Sam Foster, has granted permission for Stannifer's £84 million sterling retail and leisure complex at Sprucefield, at the M1 Dublin/Belfast road junction outside Lisburn.
The Sprucefield development follows on the heels of the £25 million Lisburn Square scheme by local developer CUSP. It has 80,000 sq ft of retail space and 45 apartments close to the centre of Lisburn. Agent for the Lisburn Square scheme, Hamilton Osborne King, has recently agreed lettings at Zone "A" rental levels of around £65 per sq ft.
Work on Stannifer's Sprucefield development of over 300,000 sq ft of retail, business and leisure space is expected to start later this year and will include a new £8 million interchange on the motorway junction. Previous delays in the planning process held up the development for almost six years.
The scheme, which will include a 79,000 sq ft Sainsbury's food store, is being developed jointly by Stannifer Group Holdings, from Stratford, and local company, Snoddons Construction. Agents Cherton, of Belfast, acted for the developers.
The development, alongside the already successful Sprucefield Centre which is anchored by Marks and Spencer, underlines the significance of the motorway axis, Lisburn and greater south Belfast as the most important retail centre in Northern Ireland. The largest price ever paid for a property investment in the North was achieved recently for the Forestside Centre in the south of Belfast. Forestside, which is anchored by a Sainsbury supermarket, was bought by a local investor group for over £70 million sterling.
Sainsbury has been eager to open a new store in Northern Ireland. The company's director of delivery, Mr Chris Fenner said: "This decision has been long awaited and we are obviously delighted that there has finally been a positive outcome." He said the delays in the planning process had been difficult and frustrating, but the company had been confident that the proposals would be approved. "The company remains firmly committed to Northern Ireland and all of its shopping public and we look forward to commencing work on site as soon as possible."
The Sprucefield development will include a 79,000 sq ft Sainsbury food store; a 100,000 sq ft Homebase DIY store; 50,000 sq ft of non-food retail; a leisure complex of 54,000 sq ft; 100,000 sq ft of business space; a hotel and restaurant.
John Shaw, director of Stannifer, said: "We submitted our planning application for this scheme in 1995. We are obviously delighted that the lengthy process has finally come to an end and we can now proceed with submitting the detailed plans and designs.
"We are very excited about this project," he said. "Sprucefield Lisburn has been designated the province's only regional out-of-town shopping centre and we intend to create a range of facilities in a world class format which will add to the attraction of Northern Ireland and offer consumers new shopping and leisure opportunities. It will add to the local and Northern Ireland economy," he said.
Meanwhile, Hamilton Osborne King's Belfast office has agreed lettings in the Lisburn Square development to Next, Argos and the north-of-England pub chain, JD Wetherspoon.
Lisburn Square, styled on the London Covent Garden Project, consists of 25 retail units and 40 apartments in the Smithfield Street Market Place area on the site of the old municipal swimming-pool.
Built around a piazza-style space, it will include cafes, restaurants, a pub and leisure destination outlets. Basement car-parking for up to 220 spaces is also provided.
Next and Argos have taken 11,420 sq ft and 12,335 sq ft respectively. JD Wetherspoon, which is currently developing up to 30 pubs in Northern Ireland is taking an 11,265 sq ft stand-alone unit. The development is by the CUSP group, which is also developing the similarly sized Diamond Centre in Coleraine, Co Derry.
Mr Colin Matthewson of HOK said interest in Lisburn Square is strong. "Location in the town centre, proximity to Belfast and an unusually high socio-economic proportion of the local population mean the market conditions for Lisburn Square could not be better."
Lisburn has the second largest population in Northern Ireland after Belfast with 500,000 people within 30 minutes' drive of the town centre. Proximity to the M1 and M2 motorways provides easy access and the nearby Sprucefield warehouse complex already draws 300,000 each week.
"Lisburn is one of the four most affluent of Northern Ireland's 26 district councils - 41 per cent of the town's population fall into the Acorn categories of `thriving' or `expanding', with the vast majority in the `wealthy achievers, suburban areas' or the `well-off workers' family' categories," says Mr Matthewson.
Brian Henning, chief executive of CUSP, says the square is proving very desirable because of the successful combination of location, access and population density. Based on classical Ulster architectural lines, the square has the hallmarks of a traditional Northern Ireland town centre. "Lisburn Square is a celebration of Ulster's urban architectural style," says Mr Henning, "and this is as attractive and as significant as Dublin's Georgian heritage."
