As the owners of Benedict’s Hotel in the Queens Quarter have just been given approval to extend their existing hotel, brothers Paddy and Edmund Simpson have announced plans to open a second hotel in the revitalised Cathedral Quarter area of Belfast.

Investment in the existing hotel ion Bradbury Place will see the hotel grow to 56 rooms as part of their larger £2.5m investment plans, saying strong occupancy levels have prompted their decision.  Work will start early 2016.

Now, the Simpsons plan to submit an application to Belfast City Council for a 40-room hotel development on Donegall Street, close to St Anne’s Cathedral and the increasingly popular Cathedral Quarter.  The new hotel will replace a warehouse.