Dublin investor in multi-million pound bid to transform BT’s former Belfast HQ
A Dublin-based property investor has launched a multi-million-pound bid to transform BT’s former Belfast city centre headquarters into a new grade A office development.Melcorpo Commercial Properties has submitted a planning application to reconfigure and refurbish Capital House on Wellington Place, adding two additional floors. Built in 1976, the prominent white structure on the corner of Upper Queen Street, opposite PwC’s headquarters, was previously known in Belfast as Dial House.It acted as BT’s main centre of operations in the city centre until the telecoms giant moved to Riverside Tower in 1998.Based in Dun Laoghaire, Melcorpo’s other main investment activity in the north to date involves a joint venture with Ballymena property firm Magell.Capital House is located on the corner of Wellington Place and Upper Queen Street in Belfast city centre. Magmel (Ballymena) Limited’s interests include the Fairhill Shopping Centre.In December, it paid £30 million to complete its takeover of the Riverside Retail Park in Coleraine.The deal came two years after it paid £10.25m for part of the shopping hub.Magell, which is owned by the Walker family, previously owned the office building next door to Capital House.Eagle Star House was redeveloped into modern flexible office space in 2020, operating as Urban HQ.The Ballymena company sold the building to property and hospitality entrepreneurs Justin Quirk and Conall Humston in 2024.Like, the architectural firm responsible for designing Eagle Star House, is now involved with the Melcorpo project.Documents submitted to Belfast City Council propose a redevelopment of a similar character and style to the glass and steel façade of its next door neighbour.The multi-million-pound office investment proposal comes as new analysis of the north’s commercial property market by CBRE detected £294m spent across 33 transactions in 2025.Although it represented a 67% increase on the £176m spent in 2024, the commercial property market in 2025 was again dominated by retail deals.Major transactions included the £58.8m paid by the Herbert Group for the Abbey Centre in Newtownabbey and the £51.2m paid by San Diego-based Realty Income Corporation for Sprucefield Retail Park in Lisburn.Melcorpo’s £30m joint deal for the Riverside Retail Park was also among the biggest transactions, just ahead of Supermarket Income REIT’s £25.6m acquisition of the Tesco Extra superstore in Craigavon.Those big ticket deals helped lift the average deal size from £4.9m in 2024 to £8.9m in 2025.“Last year marked a clear improvement in market liquidity, with a substantial increase in completed transactions compared with the previous year,” said Gavin Elliott, Senior Director at CBRE NI.“While pricing across most sectors remains flat, the depth of activity we have seen is encouraging and reflects growing confidence as interest rates begin to ease.”Mr Elliott said Northern Ireland’s grade A office sector will be “one to watch” in 2026.“Current pricing relative to rebuild costs, combined with increasing demand and a shrinking supply of high-quality accommodation, points towards strong rental growth for best-in-class assets over the coming years.”
