Titanic Quarter in Ageneration
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FutureDev_307618.qxd 20/6/08 2:14 pm Page 79 future developments Titanic Quarter Few cities are as fortunate as Belfast to possess a development opportunity of the scale or quality of Titanic Quarter. Located on a 185-acre site known community centred on genuine as Queen’s Island within walking social interaction and shared values The Titanic Quarter distance of Belfast City Centre, – a new focal point for Belfast. will be the biggest Titanic Quarter, with its one linear mile of water frontage, is one of According to Mike Smith, Chief thing to hit Europe’s largest urban waterfront Executive of Titanic Quarter Ltd, the redevelopments. regeneration scheme represents a Northern Ireland fresh start for the city: in a generation. Co-promoted by Titanic Quarter Ltd and Belfast Harbour Commissioners, “Belfast is a special place and the the site is centred on former Titanic Quarter will be the biggest shipbuilding land where vessels thing to hit Northern Ireland in a such as the Titanic, Olympic and generation. It is symbolic of the new Canberra were designed, built Northern Ireland and we view it as and launched – some of the most an opportunity to create something innovative and complicated very significant that everybody can engineering projects ever undertaken. be proud of.” Titanic Spirit Titanic Proportions Today that same spirit of Titanic Quarter is a multi billion, Abercorn Basin, Titanic Quarter enthusiasm to achieve success once-in-a-generation development on a global scale is driving the opportunity that will evolve over development of Titanic Quarter; 15 years. The ambition is to creating a new urban hub for create commercial and residential Belfast with international space for over 35,000 people, investment opportunities in the including: residential, leisure, office and knowledge economy sectors. • Up to 5,000 apartments Helping recreate that ‘Titanic’ • 2m sq ft of business, office, spirit is lead architect Eric Kuhne, Research and Development floor whose practice CivicArt has master space to complement Belfast planned and designed major City Centre. waterfront regeneration projects across four continents. • 1.4m sq ft commercial space. The aim is to create a pattern of • 450,000 sq ft of leisure parks, streets and gardens with development including localised retail, healthcare and restaurants, hotels, cafés, bars educational facilities, building a and health & fitness clubs. ≥ 79 FutureDev_307618.qxd 20/6/08 2:14 pm Page 80 future developments The Public Records Office of Northen Ireland, a new £30 million development ≥ Titanic Quarter continued... • The 24-acre Northern Ireland 18,000 full and part-time students Environment Minister Arlene Science Park project that has to a new bespoke facility by 2010 Foster said: already attracted investors such and the Public Records Office of as Microsoft and GE Healthcare. Northern Ireland (PRONI) will move “The development of this 16.5 acre to a new £30m development beside site, including the restoration of • Campus style educational the Gateway building. the Titanic and Olympic slipways, facilities – work on a new represents a further step in the 16,000 student campus, Phase Two development of the City. It is a Belfast Metropolitan College, Northern Ireland’s Environment major confidence boost for the has already begun. Minister announced in October 2007 economy and the building industry that outline planning permission which will provide long term • A dedicated cruise liner berth had been granted for Phase Two economic benefits to the whole to support Belfast’s growing of Titanic Quarter. The scheme is of Northern Ireland.” reputation as a major northern the largest application ever dealt Maritime Heritage European port of call. with by the Northern Ireland Phase One Planning Service and will provide To harness Belfast’s pride in its approximately three million sq ft maritime past, Titanic Quarter Ltd, Phase One of the development is of new floor-space in the centre of Belfast Harbour Commissioners already underway. Queen’s Road Belfast. Phase Two will incorporate and the Department of Enterprise, has been realigned to maximise a landmark Titanic Signature Trade and Investment (DETI) are space and the initial batch of Project, as well as additional pursuing a major project to apartments is being built, along residential, office, leisure and construct a landmark Titanic with the 150,000 sq ft Gateway public realm space. Signature building at the head Office, the scheme’s first of the Titanic slipway. commercial development. The project will be a major The first phase of residential international tourist attraction and development is ‘The Arc’ at Abercorn It is a major confidence focal point for leisure activities – a Basin comprising 475 apartment concept not unfamiliar to Queen’s homes ranging from one-bedroom boost for the economy Island. Before the arrival of the apartments to penthouses. shipyards the area was Belfast’s and the building industry pleasure park, a public space Belfast Metropolitan College decided complete with a Crystal Palace to relocate its new campus plus exhibition and Belfast’s first zoo. 80 FutureDev_307618.qxd 20/6/08 2:14 pm Page 81 future developments The Titanic Signature project will potential to help make sure that All of the above films have utilized help return Queen’s Island to Belfast is just as successful in the the ‘i-burst’ wireless broadband Belfast’s citizens and attract a Knowledge Revolution. system tested at Titanic Quarter, new generation of visitors keen i-burst enables users to access to discover the history behind the At the Movies the internet or stream pictures world’s most famous vessel. live whist on the move, giving As mentioned, one new industry producers and directors much adding to Belfast’s general sense Speed of Light more flexibility and access when of economic resurgence is the city’s shooting on location. In the knowledge-economy, growing popularity as a destination for film-makers. communication is largely based With almost 20 major film and around the Internet and Titanic television projects coming to Quarter offers one of the most In the last few years several big Northern Ireland in the last four sophisticated telecommunication names have made the journey years and a $24m funding injection infrastructures in Europe. including Tim Robbins of promised by the Northern Ireland Shawshank Redemption fame Government, it may be that Titanic Quarter is also the first who shot ‘The Secret Life of Hollywood’s fascination with all part of the UK or Ireland to adopt Words’, on an oil rig moored off things Titanic may just be about ‘i-burst’, a revolutionary portable, the northern end of Titanic Quarter to take a different form. wireless broadband system that and Lord Richard Attenborough enables users to access the who filmed ‘Closing the Ring’. Titanic Quarter is helping to recast Internet or stream pictures live Belfast as a modern metropolitan whilst on the move. The system In 2006 Tom Hanks’ production hub, a home for both indigenous has numerous applications – not company Playtone and Walden entrepreneurs and overseas least as a production tool used Media filmed the $50m children’s investors. In the 21st Century by the increasing number of film fantasy ‘City of Ember’ (written by economy, the ambition is to create crews who have been making Jeanne Duprau) entirely within a new urban space and up to 20,000 their way to Belfast. Northern Ireland. new jobs, restoring Queens Island’s reputation as a worldwide centre Belfast’s shipyards and engineering Much of the shoot was based in of commercial excellence. works make it one of the most Titanic Quarter in the cavernous successful cities of the industrial paint hall once used by the Harland Web. www.titanicquarter.com revolution. Titanic Quarter has the & Wolff shipyard. Tel. 028 9076 6300 Phase Two of Titanic Quarter, the impressive Titanic Slipways and Titanic Signature Project 81.