John Graham Construction Limited has been selected as the main contractor for a new residential community at Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Developer Watkin Jones has secured £155m in funding for the scheme in partnership with Lacuna Developments. They exchanged contracts with Legal & General and Clanmil Housing Association to fund the new urban residential community, to be called Loft Lines.
Watkin Jones chief investment officer Alex Pease said: “This is further evidence of the attractive investment and operating fundamentals of both BTR as a sector and Belfast as a city and a good sign of the reopening of markets of capital”.
Lacuna Developments managing director Anthony Best said: “We look forward to starting work with Graham very soon on what will be a three-year project and will be a game-changing regeneration plan for the Titanic Quarter and the city in general “.
A spokesman for Graham said Construction news that a date had not yet been set to start the work on site.
The funding agreed is part of a wider £175m development and represents the first build-to-rent (BTR) scheme in Northern Ireland, along with the first mixed-tenure affordable housing scheme.
It will create 778 new waterfront homes (627 BTR units and 151 affordable homes) on a derelict site in the Titanic Quarter, formerly home to world leaders in innovative engineering and a former center for shipbuilding firm Harland and Wolff.
Titanic Quarter commercial director James Eyre said it was “extremely exciting to see Loft Lines progressing towards the construction phase”, while LGIM Real Assets’ BTR head of transactions Mike Powell said the company was “proud to have made the largest private sector investment in housing in Northern Ireland”.
Powell stressed that the deal was “a long-term investment that will enable the continued regeneration of the Titanic Quarter and will crucially support the city’s growing housing demands.”
Upon completion, Loft Lines will include lounges, sports and recreation spaces, gyms, flexible workspaces, private dining rooms, games rooms, cinema rooms and children’s play areas. The BTR scheme is surrounded by an urban forest with parks and walkways and will incorporate air source heat pumps and other energy saving capabilities.
