The Lord Mayor of Belfast has met with those who have transformed derelict city centre buildings with support from the Belfast City Council’s Vacant to Vibrant initiative.

During a walkabout, the Lord Mayor visited Marie Thérèse Hickey of Verona Bridal on Bruce Street, Curtis and John Sloan of Sloan's Gym on Chapel Lane and Peter Richards and Sarah McAvera of Golden Thread Gallery on Queen Street.

Lord Mayor Councillor Micky Murray said: "I’ve been so impressed by the vision, energy, enthusiasm, and commitment of the people I’ve met. They’re demonstrating the very best of Belfast’s character - harnessing resilience, innovation, and passion to restore previously vacant spaces in city centre buildings to become thriving, successful businesses and organisations.

"They’ve shown me that our Vacant to Vibrant funding initiative is achieving exactly what we set out to do as part of our Future City Centre programme – revitalising the city centre, creating a thriving place where people want to spend time, live, study, work and invest. Council is already helping to bring over 20 city centre properties back into use; supporting an anticipated 80 direct and indirect employment opportunities and returning a projected £3.87 in rates income for every £1 invested by council.

-- Advertisement --

"Marie Thérèse at Verona Bridal is welcoming brides to be from all over the UK and Ireland – and as far as Bermuda, Dubai and Florida - to choose their dream wedding dress in a state of the art setting, Jonathan, Curtis, and their grandfather John at Sloan’s have expanded and diversified their city centre gym offer by creating Ireland’s only open air roof-top training facility, in addition to their café and thriving online protein ball business – and Peter and Sarah and their team at Golden Thread Gallery have developed a creative urban haven, welcoming everyone to experience and enjoy visual arts.

"To thrive, cities need to offer a distinctive, authentic experience that includes retail as well as welcoming, engaging spaces and opportunities for leisure, culture, living, studying, working, visiting, and socialising. So we’re keen to see more applications come forward from businesses and social enterprises, cultural and voluntary organisations and property owners who’d like to relocate in Belfast city centre. We want our investment to stimulate and support thriving businesses, attract greater footfall and spend to the city centre and help create employment. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has already secured funding and are providing such a great return on council’s investment – both socially and economically – for the city, its residents, and visitors."

Applicants receiving Vacant to Vibrant funding also gain access to comprehensive support from the council's Enterprise and Business Growth team. This includes resources for start-up or expansion, one-to-one mentoring and workshops to aid in business growth and long-term sustainability.

Grants of up to £2.5k are available for pop-up ground floor use (minimum four months), up to £15k for active floor usage up to 150m², and up to £25k for active floor usage over 151m².