Planning approval for two Belfast hotel projects

Belfast City Council has given the green light to two more extensive hotel projects.

Plans by brothers Peter and Ben Ringland for a 56-bedroom hotel in Howard Street received approval from council last night (November 15).

And an application by the Fitzwilliam Hotel in Great Victoria Street which will see 30 new rooms added, along with a gym, a spa and a roof terrace, was also given the go-ahead.

The Howard Street hotel – plans for which were first revealed by Licensed & Catering News last month – comes from local brothers Peter and Ben Ringland, who are also behind the development of the new Town Square venue on Botanic Avenue in the city.

The new hotel will be built in Howard House on the floors above Flame restaurant. The rooms in the new hotel will be slightly larger than normal and will feature kitchenettes – a format which Peter Ringland says is becoming increasingly popular in cities such as London.

“This appeals to visitors who want to stay a little longer,” he told LCN recently. “It pushes the average stay up from one or two nights to perhaps, five and there is a lot of demand for that in Belfast at the moment with the increase in tourist business.”

Both schemes now take their place in a schedule of hotel development across Northern Ireland involving almost 30 projects, most of them in the Greater Belfast area.