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31/05/2009 SLIGO REDEVELOPMENT
TREASURY GOES SHOPPING IN SLIGO

Treasury Holdings Ireland is due to make a start this year on a €80 million shopping centre development in Sligo, which will see the creation of 500 construction jobs. The scheme forms the final piece of a €250 million centre-block master plan by the local authority to revive the town centre.

A €80 million mixed-use development of Sligo’s Wine Street Car Park is to create 500 jobs during the construction phase of the commercial and property project. The Treasury Holdings development will comprise 30 shops, a multi-storey capacity car park, 27 apartments and 30,000sq ft of office space.

The scheme will generate an additional 500 direct and indirect jobs, following the completion of the new shopping centre and the car park, which will be linked to a car park planned by Dunnes Stores as part of the re-development of their Adelaide Street store to provide around 1,000 spaces.

Niall Kavanagh, director of development at Treasury Holdings Ireland, said that despite the economic downturn there was still great interest from retailers in the scheme. “The banking and funding situation is difficult but once you have good retailer interest it makes everything possible.” His biggest challenge is to get all the property owners in the Wine Street car park area "singing off the same hymn sheet".

Treasury Holdings is in talks with all the affected parties in the car park in an attempt, as Kavanagh explained "to map a way forward". Planning permission was granted in mid-January for a new temporary car park on the outskirts of Sligo to alleviate the shortfall in parking in the town centre during the construction of the Wine Street car park development.

He said that the plan was the car park would be used by construction workers and that retailers in the town would also encourage staff to use it so that town centre parking would be left free for shoppers.

IN THE PIPELINE
Treasury, through their subsidiary Callside Developments, were finally granted planning permission at the end of last year for the centre block development after six years of various twists and turns.

The long-awaited redevelopment of Sligo town centre, which has been in the pipeline for more than a decade, finally got the go-ahead when An Bord Pleanala approved the €80 million scheme on the site of the Wine Street car park last December.

"We are delighted to have been finally given the go-ahead for this eagerly awaited and important scheme," noted Niall Kavanagh, and has said he remains hopeful that "with the support and goodwill of all involved, we can deliver this development in the shortest timescale possible."

Conor Ronan, who is part of the Sligo-based development consortium, said: "Sligo is finally going to get the badly needed redevelopment of its town centre. Treasury Holdings will aim to attract top class national and international retailers to the scheme which will ensure Sligo town centre becomes the retail destination of choice for the people of the northwest of Ireland."

Treasury Holdings has said the development would be "the centrepiece and heart of a new retail core for Sligo". In its statement, released following approval by the planning board, the company said a plaza would be included in the scheme, to provide a “much-needed quality public space for the people of Sligo”, while the new multi-storey car park would facilitate those using the centre or accessing the town centre.