McAlister proposes £90m tower for Belfast

Antrim developer Mervyn McAlister has submitted proposals to the Northern Ireland Planning Service to build a £90 million (€137 million) 37-storey tower block in Belfast that would be the tallest in the North if approved.

Designed by Dublin architects HKR, the Aurora tower will be located in central Belfast on the corner of Great Victoria Street and Ventry Street. Mr McAlister believes the building can become an iconic landmark for Belfast and help fuel its regeneration by helping people to live and work in the city centre.

With Belfast enjoying a property boom and Northern Ireland house prices outperforming all other regions in the UK economy last year, the commitment to invest £90 million in a single project marks the growing confidence of developers in the North.

"The building will become a new landmark at the gateway to the city centre from south Belfast," said Mr McAlister, who is best known as the owner of McAlister Homes in Ballycastle, Co Antrim.

"Its construction will enhance and enrich the evolving skyline of Belfast and will help add to the developing cosmopolitan city centre culture."

Mr McAlister is developing the tower through his company McAlister Holdings. If planners approve the project this year and construction starts in 2008, the tower could open by 2010.

Some 300 people will be employed in the two-year construction phase of the project.

About 109m high, the Aurora tower will be some 28m taller than than the Obel Building, which is currently under construction at Donegall Quay in the city. However, it will be shorter than the proposed U2 tower in Dublin, which is still on course to be Ireland's tallest construction at 120m.

The Aurora tower will house 291 residential units and 650sq m (7,000sq ft) of commercial space, including a restaurant. The development will be marketed at the luxury end of the spectrum, with a residents' gym, valet parking and concierge service.

The tower is named after the "northern lights" of the aurora borealis. Its roof will feature a lighting effect to stimulate the lights of the northern horizon at nighttime.

"From the entrance at the bottom of the building to the beacon on the top of the tower, our design reflects the high quality and high specification living accommodation that expresses penthouse-style quality throughout the tower," said Phil Doyle, the HKR director in charge of the project.