Apartment development planned near Windsor Park

A NEW 36-apartment development could be built close to Windsor Park in Belfast.

If approved, the project will be built on Lorne Street, just off the Lisburn Road in the south of the city.

The five-storey development will include a single roof-top apartment and communal space.

If the project goes ahead, it will replace a vacant office and an industrial building.

“The application site is vacant, a former office and industrial premises,” planners said.

“The site has been vacant for a period in excess of one year, following the relocation of the previous business occupant.

“It was considered that this location was no longer suitable for the business and the heavy goods vehicles which serviced the premises.”

The plan is being overseen by a “private developer who is the current owner of the vacant site, while the target market, or intended occupants, is intended to be the private or social rented sector”.

The red-brick building will include bay windows and other features.

The plan for the development was submitted on behalf of the Quinn Family Pension Fund.

Lorne Street stretches north to south from Lower Windsor Avenue, across to Tates Avenue.

It is less than a quarter of a mile away from Windsor Park football stadium.

The project is the latest in a series of apartment buildings planed for the city.

They include luxury developments led by a company that counts KFC tycoon Michael Herbert as a director.

Among these is a 53-home scheme and a 104-apartment plan, both of them in the east of the city.

Work is also under way on the Sandford apartment development in the Bridge End area of Belfast.

The Gallery on the Dublin Road, developed by Richland Group, also recently opened.