Belfast agents Richard Ellis Gunne anticipate rental levels of around £15 sterling per sq. ft for a new Dunloe Ewart office building in the Laganside area.

Nine Lanyon Place, with 150,000 sq. ft, is one of two major speculative office developments in Belfast city centre, marking a major turn in the city's office market. There has been no significant speculative office development in the city since the early 1970s.

The rent quoted for Nine Lanyon Place also marks a major departure in rental levels in the city. Until this year, rentals had stood still at £10 per sq. ft for prime space.

This ceiling was broken in February when Dunloe Ewart achieved £12 per sq. ft for a 38,000 sq. ft office building in Corporation Street. It was let in total to All State Insurance, a US firm which is developing software for the insurance industry in Belfast.

Another office building at Mays Meadows, also in the Laganside area and developed by another Southern-based group, has also recently achieved a rental level of around £12 per sq. ft.

This building has also been fully let to a single tenant, Abbey National.

As well as the Dunloe Ewart building beside the Waterfront Hall, Hilton and BT Tower landmarks, local developer McAleer and Rushe is starting work on a nine-storey office building in Great Victoria Street. Both buildings will have around 150,000 sq. ft of office space.

McAleer and Rushe, which recently completed the striking new 125,000 sq. ft headquarters building in Donegall Place East for Ulster Bank at a cost of £25 million, has just gone on site at its new speculative office block next door to the Great Northern Tower and Europa Hotel. The new block, Millennium House, which will have 146,500 square feet, will cost £15 million to develop.

Jago Bret, of agents Lambert Smith Hampton, said Millennium House marks a substantial vote of confidence in the Belfast office market.

Dunloe Ewart, which developed the Hilton Hotel and adjoining 150,000 sq. ft BT Tower, is planning further retail and leisure development on the same site after completion of the Nine Lanyon Place building.

Guy Hollis, of agents Richard Ellis Gunne, who is acting for Dunloe Ewart on Nine Lanyon Place, described the building as the premier office development in the premier site in the North. It is five storeys high, providing floor plates of around 25,000 sq. ft for flexibility. The highest spec lettings in the building, with air-conditioning provided, should attract rental levels of £15 per sq. ft.