Agenda and minutes

            Apologies for inability to attend were reported from Councillors M. Browne and B. Kelly.

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 5th November, it had agreed to defer consideration of a report on the Titanic Quarter to enable representatives of Titanic Quarter Limited, Titanic Foundation Limited, Titanic Watch and the Belfast Area Partnership to be in attendance.  Prior to the deputations being admitted, the Director of Development submitted for the Committee’s consideration the undernoted report:

“1        Relevant Background Information

1.1       Titanic Quarter, one of Europe's largest exciting waterfront developments, will transform a 185-acre site on the banks of Belfast's river Lagan into a new mixed use maritime quarter with a mile of water frontage and a range of investment opportunities including over 7,500 apartments, 900,000 sq. m. of business, education, office and research and development floor space together with hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and other leisure uses.

1.2       During its 20-year development plan it is estimated that 15,000 construction and 20,000 new jobs within the city will be created as a direct result from the development of the Titanic Quarter including a wide variety of employment opportunities particularly in construction, creative media, light industries such as health and environmental technology, ICT and the growing business, financial, hospitality, tourism, leisure and ancillary service industries.  Members should note there are already 70 firms based in Titanic Quarter providing over 2,000 jobs, with a further 500 construction workers currently on site. 

1.3       As part of Titanic Quarter’s ongoing redevelopment, it now offers a competitive and unique environment as a potential film location.  Film and television productions such as ‘Your Highness’, ‘City of Ember’ and ‘Mickybo and Me’ have been filmed in the historic buildings on the site including ‘The Paint Hall’ and the former Harland and Wolff Headquarters building and Drawing Offices.  The Paint Hall, where the component parts of ships were once painted, is now a massive build-space, containing four 16,000sqft “cells” all connected by an internal road and streets.  US broadcaster HBO, producers of ‘The Sopranos’ are currently on site and could potentially be located in Belfast for a further five to seven years. 400 individuals are presently working in The Paint Hall studio in a range of occupations from construction and electrical engineering to make-up, dressmaking, catering and other specialist areas. 

            Members will also note the American banking giant Citi recently announced the creation of 500 new financial services jobs over the next 5 years.  This is an extremely significant boost for the local economy, particularly in terms of job numbers and the high quality of the positions (440 new high-quality roles in its technology and operations divisions and a further 60 new specialist posts in its legal and compliance division).

1.4       For the relevance of new Members, the current Master Plan for the area divides Titanic Quarter into 5 distinct Phases:

            Phase 1: 1 million sqft mixed-use development adjacent to the Odyssey Arena and Pavilion.  Phase 1 encompasses the ‘the Arc' residential complex, the Gateway Office complex where Citibank are located, Premier  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.