Forestside Shopping Centre
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Forestside Shopping Centre is located in the southern suburbs of Belfast. The first phase of the centre, the 39,000 square foot (3,600 m²) Sainsbury's store, was opened in March 1997. The popularity of the centre has exceeded expectations with traffic congestion a major problem in peak trading seasons. Sainsbury's was obliged to pay for extensive roadworks on the A24/A55 junction as a condition of the planning permission.
[edit] History
Forestside was developed by J Sainsbury plc as the site of its second Northern Ireland store. The site was previously occupied by, and known as, Supermac - a local supermarket. The Sainsbury's store was built on the northern part of the roughly triangular site which was unoccupied as part of the Supermac complex. Sainsbury's first annual report after the store opened in 1997 noted that the store was "trading far above expectations" and it continues to be one of the best performing of the group.
As the first stage opened work continued on the final stage of the shopping mall, 31 small units and two other large stores occupied by Marks & Spencer and Dunnes Stores. The total floor space of the centre is 250,000 square feet (23,300 m²) the south eastern part of the which stands on the site of the Supermac supermarket. The architects of the mall took advantage of the large east-west gradient of the site to build extensive underground car parking and service access.
Sainsbury's opened a petrol filling station at the same time as the supermarket, on the site of the Drumkeen Hotel. The Drumkeen Hotel had been demolished after four bombings by the Provisional IRA.
Sainsbury's sold Forestside to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) for approximately £50m in late 1998. USS sold the centre in mid-2001 for £70m to an Irish investment consortium.
On March 26 2005 the centre's Next outlet was targeted with an incendiary device which ignited after it had closed. Another device was defused in the centre's Dunnes Stores on Monday March 28. The attacks; like the campaign which destroyed a B&Q store at Sprucefield, Co. Down, were blamed on dissident republicans.
