Hilton looks to Dublin after agreeing Belfast deal

THE Hilton hotel group is focusing its attention on Dublin following the completion of arrangements for its new 180-bedroom hotel in the centre of Belfast.

The Belfast Hilton will be the centrepiece of a £130 million sterling commercial development at Lanyon Place, overlooking the River Lagan.

Senior executives of the hotel group visited Dublin this week to conduct an appraisal of the site selected opposite Trinity College and to study the progress made in securing planning permission for the £25 million hotel.

A Dublin property developer, Treasury Holdings, and Hilton Hotel are to jointly develop the 174-bedroom hotel on a high profile three-quarter acre site abounded by College Street, Westmoreland Street and Fleet Street.

Dublin Corporation has been dragging its heels on the issue of planning permission despite the enormous value of a Hilton hotel for Irish tourism.

Had the planners wanted to facilitate the development and expedite the scheme, they could have advised earlier that the project would involve a material contravention of the city development plan.

Instead, they left it until virtually the last day on which a decision was to have been made,, before announcing that the hotel would require a material contravention on the grounds that it involved the demolition of a number of listed buildings in College Street and Westmoreland Street.

The corporation's planning committee has recommended that planning permission should be granted.

However, for the project to proceed, 75 per cent of the members of the full council will have to vote on May 13th in favour of a material contravention of the development plan.

If for any reason the Hilton hotel does not go ahead, then Treasury Holdings has full planning permission to redevelop the site for 100,000 square feet of offices.

The corporation's apparent indifference to the hotel scheme contrasts sharply with Belfast's attitude to Hilton. There, the British Government is providing £7 million in grants towards the new hotel because of Hilton's worldwide sales network and its reputation for providing the very best in hotel services.

If the five-star Dublin Hilton eventually gets the go ahead, it seems likely that the company will also open a second hotel in the Dublin area.

Hilton's decision to locate its Belfast hotel in Lanyon Place is a major coup for Belfast property developer Ewart which owns the 14-acre site.

Already £80 million has been committed to the site. British, Telecom is to spend £30 million on a new regional headquarters for Northem Ireland.

Work is also well advanced on a circular conference and concert centre, which will adjoin the Hilton Hotel. Ewart will have a 25 per stake in the hotel, which is due to open in the summer of 1998.

Lanyon Place will have 500,000 square feet of commercial space and 1,100 parking spaces in a multi-storey car-park. The development will also include a new, quayside and public square with restaurants, bars and shops.

The Duke of Abercom, chairman of the Laganside Corporation, said Lanyon Place was undoubtedly destined to be the major commercial and leisure centre of Belfast in the next millennium.

Ewart's chief executive, Barry Gilligan, said it would welcome interest from major financial partners looking to invest in the North.