Aurora Site Petrol Pumps To Return

A site once set aside for Belfast's tallest building could now be used once again for a filling station.

The site bought at the height of the property boom was planned for the 'Aurora' skyscraper - if the development had of went ahead it would have become the tallest building in Belfast.

Developer Mervyn McAlister bought the site on Great Victoria Street with dreams of making 'Aurora' a reality but the Anglo Irish Bank later repossessed it. Mervyn McAlister was declared bankrupt earlier this year.


Now a Northern Ireland based coal company has lodged plans for permission to build a filling station- which was the previous use for the site.

Cookstown-based Lissan Coal Company (LCC) hope to build an unattended 24-hour filling station on the site. The planning application submitted by LCC earlier this month indicates that it does not yet own the site.

It is understood that people can make planning applications for sites they do not own so long as the owners are notified in advance.

In this case, the notified party is the Belfast firm Keenan Corporate Finance who are acting on behalf of the Irish government's 'bad bank', the National Assets Management Agency (Nama).

LCC is the leading coal importer and distributor in Ireland. Its application is to build five pumps on the site.

The Obel Tower, located on the River Lagan remains as the tallest building in Belfast.

Costing £60 million and measuring 85 metres (279 ft) in height, the tower dominates the Belfast skyline.

(LB/BMcC)