Last week Causeway Asset Management joined a delegation of 80 business leaders to represent Belfast at MIPIM 2018, the world’s leading property investment event held annually in Cannes. Damian Mitchell, director, explains why the event was so important for the city.

Every year at MIPIM there is a ‘can do’ attitude from the very moment you arrive in Cannes. This event is one of the few in our calendar which provides the opportunity for advisors, developers and city stakeholders, to come together for the greater good of our city.

We go to MIPIM as Team Belfast, or in this year’s case under the twitter handle @BelfastMIPIM, with a spirit of collegiality and respect. Everyone’s priority at MIPIM is our city, and progressing and showcasing it to anyone and everyone at the conference.

At Causeway Asset Management we are always keen to play our part in promoting Belfast as a strong location for investment and, as MIPIM 2018 closed for this year, word had successfully spread about Belfast’s commitment to the future vision of the city, and more specifically about the level of innovation being incorporated into new build and renovation projects in and around the city core.­

I had the opportunity to speak at the Belfast at MIPIM delegation dinner in Cannes, where I told an audience of close to 100 about our work on two of our most recent landmark projects at Nine Lanyon Place and Chichester House. Available for occupation in early 2019, these two Grade A office developments represent in excess of 200,000 sq. ft in Belfast’s city core. A spec build and a refurbishment project, both will meet the demanding requirements of our innovative ‘Future-Fit’ design concept.

This pair of assets will also be Belfast’s first two WiredScore Certified office developments, bringing Belfast in line with other leading world cities using the global WiredScore digital connectivity benchmark and we are very confident given discussions to date that we will have these two buildings substantially let and occupied on completion.

Belfast is primed for progress and developments like ours show investors the energy, enthusiasm and ambition our city has to offer, encouraging them to seize the opportunity to invest.

Belfast at MIPIM, more than any other initiative, provides an international platform for us and the rest of real estate community to showcase the location that Belfast is and now we’re back most important is that we keep driving the positive brand Belfast message to attract the right type of investment into our city.

Of course, the social side at MIPIM can be just as fruitful as the formal meetings. One of the great gatherings of the week was a dinner organised by MCE Public Relations, the second such annual event, which provided an important opportunity for all of the key players and top advisors from the city to get together in less formal surroundings. Attending in force were Belfast Harbour Commissioners, Killultagh Estates, Tourism NI, Titanic Quarter and many others.

This year’s MIPIM was a positive and exciting event which we are confident will provide opportunities for the future. We are stronger working together so, as the new Belfast Starburst slogan says; let’s keep “energising Belfast” and carry on the Belfast MIPIM positivity now we are back on our shores.