Belfast drinks company Titanic Distillers has secured the green light from Belfast City Council to convert the Titanic Pump-House into a working distillery with associated visitor facilities.
Titanic Distillers said the plans include the installation of three large stills on a mezzanine floor overlooking the original pumping engines which are in the pump-well.
All the original pump equipment and associated internal historic features of the building will be retained and available to view as part of a visitor tour.
Visitors will also able to use the adjacent tourism centre, which will include an on-site "speakeasy" bar and café, a gift shop, exhibition space and an enlarged mezzanine floor with tasting rooms.
Apart from restoration requirements, the exterior of the pump house would remain largely untouched under the plan.
It will be open for tourists to view the famous Thompson dry dock, which was built in 1911 to accommodate the massive White Star transatlantic liners Olympic and Titanic.
Titanic Distillers Director Richard Irwin said that the company was inspired by the people who worked in Belfast's shipyard more than a century ago.
"Now tourists will be able to walk in their footsteps in the very pump-house and dry dock that represent such an authentic part of the Titanic story and indeed the history of Belfast," Mr Irwin said.
"At Titanic Distillers, we are very aware that we have a big responsibility as custodians of a hugely historic and global brand, and it is crucially important that we preserve the historical integrity of this building and its surrounds," he added.
Titanic Distillers Director Peter Lavery pointed out that in the days before Prohibition, Belfast was once the largest producer of Irish Whiskey on the island of Ireland.
"Whiskey has played an important part in the history of our city," he said.
"We want to revive this great distilling tradition and bring Belfast back to the forefront of Irish Whiskey production, while at the same time telling the story of a glorious past when Belfast led the way globally - not just in shipbuilding but across many areas of industry, manufacturing and innovation," Mr Lavery added.
