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Work to begin on delayed Bangor seafront project

Clodagh Rice
BBC News NI business correspondent
Bangor Marine CGI image of proposed plans for Bangor Marina. There are boats in the harbour on the left, and a grassy public realm space on the right. There is a park, houses, and apartments. The rest of the city is visible in the distance.Bangor Marine
The plans include public realm work, apartments, retail and a hotel and cinema

After many false starts, work is finally set to start on the Queen's Parade development project in Bangor later this month.

Once completed, it will include new homes, a hotel, offices, a market plaza, retail, cafes and restaurants.

The seafront site in County Down has been derelict for almost 30 years and has faced years of planning delays.

Speaking on Tuesday, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said that "after years of expectation", the project would be "transformational for Bangor".

The site was bought by the Department for Communities (DfC) back in 2013 and in 2019, Bangor Marine was selected as the developer for the project.

At that time, the developer was a consortium made up of Karl Group and Farrans, who pulled out before Christmas and have since been replaced by Oakland Holdings.

The investment is expected to cost £145m, with around half of that funding (£73m) coming from the Belfast City Deal.

The developer is investing £50m, £10m has come from the UK government's Levelling Up Fund and almost £10m has been invested by the department so far.

'It's just dying'

A man is standing in a path in front of the sea. He's wearig a blue football hat and a grey coat.
Darran Gilpin says the seafront is "embarrassing"

Bangor resident Darran Gilpin said he will believe the project will get underway "when it happens".

"I'll be glad if my kids can see it. They've been talking about it since I was a youngster and nothing has happened, so they just need to get their finger out and get something started," said Mr Gilpin.

"Will somebody put another spanner in the works, which will stop things or delay things":[]}