Planning permission has been approved to convert one of Belfast's tallest buildings into a four-star luxury hotel.

Windsor House in Bedford Street is to be refurbished into a 200-bedroom hotel with restaurant and bar facilities for the Hastings Hotel Group.

The Belfast Grand Central Hotel will also include 16 serviced apartments and new ground floor retail units, as well as refurbished office space on the upper floors of the 24-storey building.

Planning Committee chair Councillor Matt Garrett said: "From next year, there will be a huge increase in the number of business delegates travelling to Belfast to use the expanded conference facilities at Belfast Waterfront, and potentially returning again as leisure visitors."

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At 80 metres high and over 122,000 sq ft in size, Windsor House is the second highest building in Belfast, and was built in 1975. Under the proposals, the ground to 15th floors of the landmark structure will be converted into new hotel accommodation, with the serviced apartments taking up the 16th and 17th floors.

Existing office units on the 18th to 22nd floors will be retained and extended, while part of the ground floor podium at the front and side of the existing building will be demolished and rebuilt to form a new entrance to the hotel.

It is understood the Belfast Grand Central Hotel development could create up to 150 new jobs in the hospitality sector when it opens in 2018.

(CD/MH)