LIDL has launched a move to open its first supermarket in south Belfast with a drive-thru café.
The German retailer has acquired a site on Belfast’s busy Boucher Road shopping district.
The vacant land is located at the front of the Olympia Leisure Centre, opposite the new Tesla garage, which opened in late August.
The Olympia was significantly redeveloped four years ago in a £22m investment.
Lidl this week submitted a proposal of application notice to Belfast City Council, officially announcing its intentions for the site.
The process is a precursor to major planning applications, typically seen as a way to address any community issues or concerns.
The notice reveals that the application will include a new discount supermarket, car parking, landscaping and site works.
But unusually for Lidl, it also provides for a new drive thru café.
The German retailer has recently used Northern Ireland for new experimental planning applications.
In March, it included a pub in its planning application for a new store in Dundonald, understood to be a first in Ireland for the retailer.
The Boucher Road is already populated by a number of drive-thru restaurants and cafes.
Lidl currently has eight stores in the greater Belfast area, including Newtownabbey and Dundonald.
A ninth is due to open in a unit at the Holywood Exchange retail park, while new replacement stores are being planned for Shore Road in north Belfast, the Castlereagh Road in the east of the city and Dundonald.
The Boucher Road site would represent its first in south Belfast, although it has two in nearby west Belfast.
It’s expected that Lidl will use the Boucher Road site to roll out another of its new concept stores.
The retailer has been steadily pursuing a development strategy of upgrading its high performing supermarkets, but the Boucher Road
Lidl’s agents MBA Planning have said that preliminary drawings of the proposal will be displayed at the site for five weeks from the start of November.
The firm said interested parties can provide feedback on the proposed development by telephone, post or email until December 11. More details will be made public via a notice on November 2.
