NORTHERN IRELAND'S largest commercial project, the £400 million (€523 million) Victoria Square retail and leisure development in central Belfast, has been formally opened.
Tens of thousands of shoppers yesterday crowded into the complex's four levels of covered, pedestrianised streets, eager to finally see the interior of the building that now dominates the city skyline.
Its 75,000sq m (807,293sq ft) of retail space, roughly equivalent in size to Dublin's Dundrum Town Centre, increases the city's shopping floor by a third.
It also includes 106 apartments and an eight-screen Odeon cinema due to open in June.
Victoria Square is one of the largest inner-city retail developments in Europe and stands on a nine-acre site connecting the city centre with the newly developed Laganside area.
The complex's 98 shopping units have attracted 39 new chains to Belfast, while also enabling established chains such as Topman and River Island to double and triple their operations in Belfast respectively.
Flagship tenant House of Fraser has 18,500sq m of retail space, making it the company's largest in both the UK and Ireland.
The development also houses many "aspirational" brands, including Hugo Boss, Reiss, Cruise, Coast, Tommy Hilfiger, All Saints, Hardy Amies and LK Bennett.
Other tenants are toy store Hamleys, two jewellers Lunn's and Goldsmith's, and Saville Row tailors Ted Baker.Food outlets O'Brien's, GBK (Gourmet Burger Kitchen) and Nandos will have units in the centre, which also hosts a Virgin Megastore and Northern Ireland's first Apple computer store.
It is estimated the centre will attract 17 million visitors a year, and that retail expenditure in Belfast will increase by £120 million (€157 million) - a rise of 17.2 per cent.
Opening the development First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley said the city had "got a new heart".
Performing his first official duties since announcing his resignation earlier this week he said: "This is an exciting night for Belfast as we continue to push forward with the development and regeneration of this great city.
"With the completion of Victoria Square we are opening a brand new chapter in the history of our city."
He said the opening also represented a "milestone for all our people. They have now on their own doorstep a magnificent regeneration scheme, which not only puts Belfast at the top of the UK agenda for retail investment, but will help to attract further significant investment and prosperity for our province in future years."
Responding to a comment that the complex's upmarket tenants would make shopping trips to Glasgow or Dublin unnecessary, Dr Paisley joked: "I was really pleased when I heard one of the speakers say, 'Don't go to Dublin, stay and buy your goods here!' I wouldn't even dare to say that."
Having once again paid tribute to Dr Paisley's "vision and leadership", Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said that the breathtaking construction "more than any other words could, quite literally gave concrete expression to the growing optimism, confidence and hope for the future that exists in within our society."