Defence Online

Plans to build a nine-storey extension to a Belfast city centre hotel look set to be approved.The Fitzwilliam Hotel is located on Great Victoria Street and comprises 130 luxury bedrooms, conference facilities and a restaurant and bar.The applicant is anticipating a tourism boost due to the 2019 British Open Golf being held at Royal Portrush and the continued success of Game of Thrones tours, meaning more rooms are needed, while the venue’s management have also identified a series of improvements that need to be made.The proposal is to build a nine-storey extension comprising 30 rooms and complete a series of upgrades throughout the venue.These include establishing a new gym and spa, a roof garden and the reconfiguration of meeting rooms and administration areas.Prior to the application being submitted, a detailed appraisal of the Fitzwilliam Hotel was undertaken by management and identified a number of issues that the proposal – drawn up by Turley – hopes to address.These included insufficient bedroom numbers, not enough room types being available, the location of the hotel’s meeting rooms and conference space, the gym being too small and the “visually understated” main entrance.A design and access statement proposes that one bedroom would be removed from the second floor, three would be added to the third floor, four would be added to each of floors four to seven, eight would be added to the eight floors and a further 13 would be added to the ninth floor.A glazed canopy would also be erected over the entrance, while the ninth floor’s meeting and administration rooms would be moved to the ground and first floors.Elsewhere in the application, Turley said that increased tourism in Northern Ireland “has raised the profile of hotels and demand for rooms”.Belfast City Council has been advised to approve the extension and will meet on 15 November to make a decision.