Tenants 'frustrated' over complex plans

By Fiona Murray
BBC News Online in Belfast

What used to be a bustling shopping centre in the heart of Belfast now resembles a ghost town.

Most of the shops in the Victoria Centre lie vacant, those that remain open are having their final sales.

The centre is being demolished to make way for one of Europe's biggest shopping developments, the flagship £300m Victoria Square complex. It is 500,000 sq ft of retail space with a hotel, health club and restaurants.

A handful of shoppers browse around the complex

A Vesting Order, which comes into affect on 18 February, has been served on the tenants.

But they are frustrated, and some are angry, at what they say is a lack of information about compensation and when they have to leave their shops.

Stanley McIlreavy, 65, who has to lay off a long-serving member of staff at his camera and video shop, said he was not against the new development but the way the situation has been handled.

"None of the smaller shopkeepers have had any real communication with the government," he said.

"We are supposed to be out for next Wednesday, but we don't know what to do," he said.

"At the moment, we're going to stay on until we're told to get out.

"We've been looking for other premises, but we can't find anywhere in Belfast that suits us rent-wise, size-wise or anything else.

"So we're looking for total extinguishment. That means we would close this shop and there would be compensation. But they haven't even talked to us about that.

Stanley McIlreavy: Had hoped to retire

"Every two weeks, the government send round a list of all the empty shops in Belfast. That's all they do."

Proposals for the development, which will stretch along Chicester Street and into Victoria Street, were first put forward four years ago.

But they faced a series of High Court challenges, a planning inquiry and other delays because of the suspension of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government.

A spokesman for the Department for Social Development, which is behind the Vesting Order, told the BBC that tenants had to be out by 18 February.

But he refuted claims that there had been a lack of communication.

"As far as we are concerned, we would not accept that there's been a lack of communication. There has been ongoing dialogue witht the shopkeepers from last summer."

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance and Personnel added: "The Valuation and Land Agency is in regular contact with agents acting on behalf of tenants with regard to a date of vacation and compensation claims."

However, businessman Gary Bradley said in the past four years no government official had visited him.

Mr Bradley, who is a partner in the camera and video shop, said they signed a 25-year lease when they opened in the centre.

Time is standing still in the vacant complex

"Here we are 15 years on and overnight our lease disappears and no-one is prepared to talk to come and talk to us. They have just basically left us high and dry," he said.

"It's very difficult to do anything about another job because we don't know how long we're going to be here."

He said the cheapest rent in a similar area was almost three times their current rate.

"The business wouldn't stay open then, we couldn't sustain that. We are frustrated in the sense, that there's no information, no one will talk to us.

"They don't leave anywhere for the small localised businesses who offer services," he added.

Paul Burns of Ex Libris bookshop closed his six-year-old business on 20 January to accommodate the Vesting Order.

'No stock'

But as compensation was not settled, he had to open again two weeks later to pay the bills.

"It has been impossible for our agent to get a meeting and get our compensation sorted," he said.

"We put a claim in on the first week of December, and we didn't order stock in for January to accommodate them and they have done absolutely nothing for us at all.

"I cannot believe this, it's all to do with accommodating the big shops. I cannot believe they've left us penniless."

There is a tangible air of despondency in the centre as shopkeepers prepare to either close down or re-locate.

David Crawford, 62, whose shoe repair business has been in the centre full-time since July 1997, is concerned about moving his business.

"This is the first time we'll be out of a mall. I always felt very nice in a mall, you have the extra security," he said.

"You never win by these situations. I know that we lost customers from our last move. They were good customers, I never saw them again, maybe I got a few new ones.

"I have been in the business since 1955. I am now moving to a smaller shop."

Dessie McKenna: Out of a job

He said small businesses were no longer being encouraged into the city which he believes will subsequently "lose its character".

"It's got to be now that people don't know where to go for small services," he said.

"Any centres I've been in they've always been glad to have us, because we play our part in bringing in the customers."

Dessie McKenna, 29, who has worked at the jewelry repair shop, Jeweltime, for 10 years will be out of work.

"It'll be hard to find another job like this one," he said.

He said the idea of the centre being replaced was "a joke".

"It takes away from the town itself, people come round here for the likes of the shoemakers, the watch repairs, the wee camera shop. Slowly but surely they're taking all these wee shops away.

"All my customers are devastated about this place closing, because they love to come in for the smaller units, smaller shops and you do get bargains in them."