Dorchester House, a 52,000 sq ft, 10 floor property on Great Victoria Street, was one of two buildings formerly occupied by HMRC before it moved to Erskine House last year.

Following the acquisition of the property Andras House intends to refurbish and redevelop the building into grade A office space, with plans to add two additional floors and increase the floorplate to 61,000 net sq ft to be submitted to planning in the near future.

Rajesh Rana, Managing Director of Andras House, said the purchase of Dorchester House represents the latest in a series of investments by the company into a part of the city that is set to benefit from completion of the new Transport Hub at Weaver’s Cross.

He said: “Great Victoria Street has been rather neglected in recent years, but we believe it will become an attractive destination following the development of the Transport Hub. We have already seen a lot of recent office activity coming back to the south city centre core, with Deloitte committing to Bedford Square, PwC moving into Merchant Square and Kainos planning a new office on Dublin Road.

“Dorchester House is close to Weaver’s Cross and the Glider passes right in front of the building it, so we are confident it will benefit from this trend. As a company we are committed to helping the regeneration of the Great Victoria Street area and reinvesting in our city so that it can continue to grow and develop with real confidence.”

The company already owns Andras House and the Lincoln Buildings in the area as well as the Holiday Inn and Hampton by Hilton hotels. Mr Rana also noted that Dorchester House was in fact first built for the Inland Revenue almost 30 years ago by Andras House under the leadership of his father Lord Diljit Rana.

Speaking about the purchase Mr Rana added: “Danske provided funding for the purchase of this asset at a time of great uncertainty at the start of the lock-down in early April. To their credit the bank turned the application around from start to completion in days at what was a very busy and difficult time, so we were very grateful for that support.”

Paul Currid, Corporate Banking Manager at Danske Bank said: “Andras House is a company that has consistently invested in the city and we were pleased to be able to help them complete this purchase. The development of the Transport Hub and other initiatives will no doubt have a very positive effect on this part of Belfast and it is great to see Andras House once again showing confidence in the city.”