CastleCourt

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CastleCourt
Castlecourt Shopping Centre - geograph.org.uk - 1305252.jpg
Outside CastleCourt in 2009
CastleCourt
Location Belfast, Northern Ireland
Coordinates 54°36′1″N5°55′53″W / 54.60028°N 5.93139°W / 54.60028; -5.93139
Opening date1990 [1]
OwnerWirefox
No. of stores and services77 [2]
No. of anchor tenants 1
Total retail floor area 31,121 m2 (334,980 sq ft) [3]
No. of floors2
Parking1600 [4]
Website www.castlecourt-uk.com

CastleCourt is a shopping centre on Royal Avenue in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fourth largest shopping centre. As of 2007, it had approximately 16 million visits a year, [3] and sale densities ranked in the top 10% in the UK. [3]

Contents

History

Inside in 2010 Castle Court, Belfast, July 2010 (09).JPG
Inside in 2010

The centre was built by John Laing on the site of the former Grand Central Hotel. [5] The nature of the development made it a target for the Provisional IRA: the centre was bombed five times during its construction, four times after it opened, and suffered incendiary bomb attacks. It is now the fourth largest shopping complex in Northern Ireland. [6]

When it opened in 1990, Debenhams was the anchor tenant at the centre and the first in Ireland, stores included Eason, Boots, Next, Virgin Megastores, Ratners, Early Learning Centre, Nice, Petal, United Colors of Benetton and The Original Art Shop.

The centre was brought by the Westfield Group and MEPC plc (later with Hermes Retail Estate) in 2000, renaming it Westfield CastleCourt. Westfield sold its share of the centre fully to Hermes Retail Estate in 2012, effectively renaming it back to just CastleCourt. [7]

In 2005, CastleCourt was refurbished, which included the removal of the fountains, an enlarged food court and a Starbucks cafe overlooking the entrance. [8]

In 2021, a multi-plan development was announced for the former Debenhams which closed the same year.[ citation needed ] The multi-plan development included a new cinema operated by Omniplex Cinemas called The Avenue, a new Starbucks (relocating from their former presence in the centre), New Look (which also takes up the store space of Hawkin's Bazaar), the return of TK Maxx in the centre after moving to Donegall Arcade on 9 April 2009, the first Northern Irish Vanilla store and a 50,000 sq ft adventure centre.[ citation needed ]

References

  1. ↑ "Castlecourt Shopping Centre". www.mybelfast.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 November 2002.
  2. ↑ Moen, David (8 October 2019). "CastleCourt Shopping Centre Belfast". www.castlecourt-uk.com.
  3. 1 2 3 "BELFAST - CASTLECOURT". westfield.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2007.
  4. ↑ "Castle Court Shopping Centre". Archived from the original on 17 January 2008. Retrieved 21 January 2008.
  5. ↑ "Belfast's CastleCourt sold for £125m to Wirefox". BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. 29 July 2017. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  6. ↑ Sharrock, David. "Belfast basks in new kind of boom; Confusion surrounds attempts to attract foreign investment but on the city's streets the tills are ringing in the benefits of peace". The Guardian , 14 December 1994.
  7. ↑ "CastleCourt". Future Belfast. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2024.
  8. ↑ "CastleCourt". Future Belfast. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
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