Private medical facility lined up for former B&Q site

Plans have been submitted for a new private healthcare facility at the site of a former B&Q retail warehouse in Belfast.The application, which relate to Units 2A and 2B at 38 Boucher Road, is being brought forward by Pragma Planning and Development Consultants on behalf of Norlin EV Ltd.Permission is sought for the adaptation, change of use, extension and re-cladding of the property.The proposed hospital would incorporate a reception and waiting area alongside an express care/fracture clinic over two floors and an imaging suite.There would also be theatres and a total of 74 recovery beds.Other space across the two floors would include 11 consulting rooms, a physiotherapy suite, a sterile services department, pharmacy facilities, staff accommodation and facilities.Formed in 2019, Norlin is a privately, locally owned property investment company which has a track record of redeveloping and letting schemes. At the Boucher road location it has redeveloped the part of the site now occupied by The Range.B&Q operated on Boucher Road from 1999 until it terminated its lease in 2016.The site has been in the ownership of the current owner since 2016 and development options have been explored with a number of different potential occupiers in that period.This proposal would see the remainder of the building occupied with “significant elevational improvements”.Drawings for the project have been prepared by PlaceLab Architects.