Restaurants close in Belfast shopping mall

Victoria Square in Belfast suffered another blow today when it was announced that two restaurants were closing immediately.

Around 100 staff at Maggiano’s Italian restaurant and Chili’s were told they were losing their jobs with the immediate closure of the outlets which opened less than a year ago.

The decision came from their US parent company Brinker which announced it was closing all its UK outlets.

The award winning Victoria Square regeneration project which opened in 2008 suffered the loss of Zavvi at Christmas and a number of its original tenants, including The Pier, have also closed their doors as the recession deepened..

A considerable number of its retail units remain unlet, although a spokeswoman for the shopping centre announced last week four new retailers are due to open soon.

Confirming the restaurant closures due to the liquidation of Brinker assets in the UK the spokeswoman said: “This is sad news for the staff who work there but we will be working hard to replace these tenants as soon as possible.”

She added: “We now have sixteen restaurants at Victoria Square which are all trading well and we recently announced four new retailers which will create around 70 full and part time jobs when they open over the coming weeks and months.”

Retailers at Victoria Square were recently given a 7% reduction in service charges in an effort to ease the monetary burden on them during the downturn.