PLANNING PERMISSION HAS been granted for a significant development along Waterford City’s north quays, which the council’s Chief Executive called “a significant milestone” for the city.
The plans are to create a Strategic Development Zone for the north side of the city: this would include a hotel, offices, shops, residential buildings, a new bridge and a “sustainable” transport hub that will be “the first of its kind” in the city – connecting bus, rail pedestrian and cycling routes to the city.
One of the sites will be used for a new shopping centre on Michael Street, while another area on North Wall Quay will become a mixed-use development under the plan.
The total combined estimated private and public investment in North Quays redevelopment is over €500 million.
Waterford Council tweeted out that it “is delighted” to advise that the planning application by Falcon Real Estate Development was approved, with its CEO calling it ”another important step”.
Falcon Real Estate Development, owned by the Fawaz Alhokair Group, a Saudi Arabian retail and hotel conglomerate, said:
The Waterford North Quays will be central to unlocking the potential of the communities of Waterford and the South East and the project will regenerate and re-ignite the regional economy and create a better future for the next generation.
CEO of Waterford City and County Council Michael Walsh told RTÉ’s News at One that this was a “three or four year project”.
“This has to be looked at through the prism of three or four years’ time.
“We’re very confident that we’re going to deliver this,” he said, adding that work would begin on the site in the second quarter of next year.
The proposed pay-off
The North Quays development is expected to deliver nearly 2,900 full-time jobs on the
development itself by 2023, primarily in the offices aspect and secondarily in the services
sectors – and a further 4,500 indirect jobs in the community.
It’s expected that the North Quays development, upon opening, will deliver a net annual
benefit to taxpayers of over €107 million a year; from 2018 to 2030 the taxpayers benefit will amount to almost €1.25 billion.
This equates to €8 returned per euro of taxpayer fund outlay.
The site will be the largest mixed-use real estate development in the South East of Ireland’s €18 billion economy for the 603,000 people living in the South East’s 60-minute catchment.
The project will also see a new city-centre skyline emerge for Waterford city centre.
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