[6] The Northern Ireland Department for Social Development (DSD) first coined the name "North East Quarter" in their masterplan for the area published in 2005.
In 2006 Royal Exchange (Ltd), a consortium made up of Leaside Investments Ltd (itself a partnership of Ewart Properties and Snoddon Ltd) and Dutch firm ING Real Estate, were initially chosen by the DSD as preferred developer for the site.
[8][9] Under Ewart Properties, the Royal Exchange development was announced as a £360 million retail-led mixed use regeneration scheme, which was to include premium brand shopping, living and complementary amenities.
[2][1] The scope of the project was now to focus more on residential and office space than the retail-led proposals previously submitted, while adding a second hotel to the plan.
[9] In November 2008 Belfast City Council gave William Ewart properties and Snoddons Construction nine months to bring forward plans.
In an announcement regarding the approval being granted, the minister stopped short of providing a timescale for the project, due to the economic climate at the time.
[11] The Department for Social Development admitted that the project had been abandoned, and that in the meantime it had commissioned a study to "examine the relationship between retail, leisure and commercial office investment in the continuing regeneration of Belfast".
[18] In January 2016, the scheme and all associated properties were bought from Cerberus Capital Management by London-based Castlebrooke Investments,[11][19] which appointed architects Chapman Taylor to draw up new plans for the development.
[1] The announcement was met with widespread criticism, including from the then Lord Mayor of Belfast, Deirdre Hargey, and from Amnesty International NI, that it was not representative of the heritage of the city, nor its people.
[24] The director of Castlebrooke Investments, Estelle Hunt, defended the name, saying that a project of this scale in Belfast in an important location will "always attract a lot of debate".
[3] The Cathedral Quarter Steering Group also raised opposition,[26] as did the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS), which has been prominent in pushing for better restoration-based approaches and in particular the retention of the North Street Arcade.
[28] Despite numerous versions of plans and applications being produced since 2003, and changes in hands of the owners and developers, the views of the campaign groups have not been fully addressed, and Save the Cathedral Quarter continues to fight against the proposals.
In 2017 after new plans were drawn up by Chapman Taylor for current owners Castlebrooke Investments, traders raised fears of being pushed out of the area,[4] and Belfast playwright Martin Lynch also added his voice to the campaign.
[30] In November 2018, when the project was re-launched as "Tribeca Belfast", Save the Cathedral Quarter added their criticism to widespread derision of the new name, stating that it was "nothing more than a superficial branding exercise".