Tribeca
Planning expired - New applications awaiting decision
Let’s talk about what’s happening in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, the cultural & creative hub of the city. Once a historic trading district, it retains some of Belfast’s oldest buildings and thoroughfares.
Its cobbled streets are rich in arts-based organisations, hospitality venues and filled with local street art. As well as being home to the new Ulster University campus, the Metropolitan Arts Centre (The MAC), Oh Yeah Music Centre, and many more.
So why then, in this buzzing part of town, have areas such as North Street and Lower Garfield Street been left to decay by developers like Castlebrook? When on one side of Donegall Street, you’ll find independent bakeries, cafes, Irish pubs, and the Belfast Exposed gallery. And on the other side, sits one of the UK’s last remaining 1930’s Art Deco arcades, left to dereliction.
Our built heritage is an important and finite resource. Contributing to cultural identity and creating a sense of belonging by linking us to our past. Restoration and heritage-led developments also benefit threatened traditional skills, as well as being the most sustainable form of development.
Proposals from Castlebrook for their “Tribeca” scheme, a £500m 12-acre regeneration project, fail to meet minimum statutory requirements or industry best practice regarding consultations and has been misrepresented by the applicant, according to Save CQ.
Great developments, that work for the people that use them, have deep, meaningful, worthy, and repeated stages of wide & varied community consultation & engagement all throughout the process, rather than used as a simple box-ticking exercise to gain planning permission.
