New luxury hotel for Belfast

Construction of yet another Belfast city centre hotel was getting under way today.

The luxury £20m (€29.4m) Fitzwilliam Hotel is being sited in Great Victoria Street, next door to the historic Grand Opera House.

It is the latest in a string of hotels being built in Belfast to meet demand from visitors to what the Lonely Planet guide calls “a must-see city”.

Planned as a five-star hotel – just the second in the city – the Fitzwilliam will have more than 130 rooms and is due to open its doors in early 2009, creating work for more than 100 people.

Speaking ahead of a symbolic ground-breaking ceremony, Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers welcomed the new hotel.

He said: “This is a very busy part of Belfast. We need more hotels because of the massive increase in the number of tourists to Belfast.

“We are now in the top 10 places in Europe that people like to visit and I have no doubt they will be delighted when they see the finished product early in 2009.”

The site and hotel are owned by businesswoman June Burgess through her company, Graffan Properties.

Despite siting the development close to two of the city’s long established hotels – the Europa and Jury’s – she said she was confident there was demand.

“The tourist industry is huge and growing daily in Northern Ireland and at present there are not enough beds to fulfil demand.”

She said the hotel would be the only one with its own entertainment complex.

Ms Burgess said she had signed a management agreement with Hotel Partners, a specialist management company which runs the five-star Fitzwilliam Hotel in Dublin.

“People expect a lot more these days and the Fitzwilliam will be totally unique. We will be using the sophistication and the style of the Fitzwilliam in Dublin and marrying that with the uniqueness of the site.”