The £400m four-level scheme, anchored by the UK's largest House of Fraser store, features 98 units, an eight-screen Odeon cinema, a range of restaurants, bars and cafes as well as 106 apartments and 1,000 car parking spaces at basement level. It has been designed by T+T Design working with BDP Architects, around the iconic glass dome, which is the new landmark on the Belfast sky line. Two covered, multi-level streets link to the public square which is covered by the dome, which measures 35 metres in diameter.

Based over four floors, the lower ground floor focuses on high-end fashion and features retailers such as Reiss, Ted Baker and LK Bennett, while the upper ground floor focuses on more mid-market retailing including a Topshop and River Island. The first and second floors are leisure oriented with a range of eateries, including Prezzo, Nandos, Costa Coffee, Pizza Hut and GBK, and the Odeon cinema.

39 of the scheme's tenants were open for trading on March 6. The Odeon cinema and a large number of the remaining eateries, as well as Topshop, will open in June/July, while other retailers, including Apple, Pull & Bear and Billabong, will open between now and then.

Currently standing at 92 per cent let, managing director of Multi UK, Paul Sargent, expects the centre to be fully let by the summer.

He is delighted to have managed to secure 39 brands that are new to Belfast and Northern Ireland, including House of Fraser, Cruise, Hugo Boss, Reiss, All Saints, Urban Outfitters, LK Bennett, Ted Baker, Puma, Pepe Jeans, Coast, Firetrap, The Pier, Pumpkin Patch, Tom Tailor, Geox, Faith, Fossil, Regis, Free Spirit, Spur, Nandos, GBK, Prezzo, Odeon, Hardy Amies, Build a Bear, Apple, Rituals, Lainidor, Pull & Bear, Laptop Shop, Art and Hobby, TGI Friday, Dantes, Chillis, Maggiganos and Frankie & Bennies.

"We only have 8 per cent to let and we are happy to wait and see," said Sargent. "I think we will fill the units with aspirational brands still as some units are on the lower ground level and I think they will mainly be new brands to Belfast."

The new centre is set to take Belfast into the top 10 in the retail hierarchy and CACI also predicts there will be 17.2 million visitors in the first year alone. A launch event, the night prior to opening, was heralded as a 'celebration' for Belfast and Northern Ireland following all of the country's previous troubles.

The launch event was attended by First Minister Ian Paisley, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie, marking the scheme as a fundamental part of the regeneration of Belfast and evidence of the city's renaissance 10 years after the Good Friday agreement.

In a press conference prior to the launch Margaret Ritchie said: "This is a landmark week for Belfast and sends a good message to the people of Belfast, the people of Northern Ireland, this island of Ireland and other European cities. It's part of the peace dividend to the people of Northern Ireland.

"This points to a new breed of confidence from developers and retailers in Northern Ireland. Belfast has now been transformed and Victoria Square has made a huge contribution towards that and enabled Belfast to compete with other European cities."

The scheme, in the southern quarter of Belfast city centre, bridges the link between the main shopping area of Donegal Place and the waterfront and has added to the city's shopping offer by nearly a third. German fund CGI, which forward-funded the scheme, has now taken the keys and Savills HOK is managing the asset.

As an open, but covered scheme, with no doors, the centre will be open 24 hours-a-day, which will certainly offer its own unique challenges.

Julie Boyd, director at Savills HOK, said: "It's the only open-air scheme at the moment in Northern Ireland so with that comes challenges that people haven't had to deal with before. It will get dirtier so we need extra provision for cleaning, we need extra security at the entrances as the two lower levels can be used as a thoroughfare and we also need to stop people from sleeping in the scheme.

"So it's just managing that and I think if you have a good team on board it shouldn't be difficult."

Resource has won the contract for all cleaning, security and customer service on site, while Hugh Black, formerly centre manager at Junction One, will be overseeing the whole day-to-day running of the scheme as centre manager.

Multi is still in charge of leasing the remaining units with joint letting agents Savills HOK and DTZ.

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