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THE DEVELOPER BEHIND the regeneration of the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast has been unveiled as the new private partner for a €550 million project in Waterford city.
Harcourt Developments is to take on the long-awaited regeneration project of the city’s North Quays, which earlier today received fresh backing from the Government following the approval of €170 million in funding.
It was described as the “largest urban regeneration project in the country” by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien following the signing off on fresh funding by the Cabinet.
Offices, residential and retail units are in the plans, which include a 4-star hotel and visitor’s centre.
The Government’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) is providing investment of €100.6m and the National Transport Authority is providing investment of €70m for the site, which was designated a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) by the Government in 2016.
The overall level of estimated public infrastructure investment is €207m, with Waterford Council and Kilkenny County Council both contributing to the project. A spokesperson for Waterford Council told The Journal that €350m of private sector investment is expected.
False starts
Works on the empty eight hectare site have been plagued by false starts over recent decades.
The most recent arose last year when the local authority terminated its contract with the Saudi-based developer over claims it was unable to meet the funding requirements.
The site is on the north bank of the River Suir, opposite Waterford city, and has been empty since the port moved downriver a number of decades ago.
Waterford City and County Council chief executive Michael Walsh told elected councillors at a meeting this evening that Harcourt has a significant track record in regenerating waterfront sites, including the Titanic Quarter in Belfast and Spencer Docks regeneration in Liverpool.
Included in the company’s portfolio is Park West Plaza in Dublin and shopping centres in Galway, Donaghmede, Letterkenny and Limerick.
Walsh said the project will be supported by development agency the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (Isif).
As part of the project, the city’s train station will be relocated east towards the centre of the North Quay, while a new pedestrian and cycle bridge is planned linking the North Quays and the city centre south of the River Suir.
A statement from the Department of Housing said the project is expected to increase economic activity in the South-East and counteract historical under investment in the region.
Today’s Government approval of Waterford City and County Council’s final business case enables the council to appoint a contractor. The contract for the Waterford North Quays Infrastructure Project is expected to be signed by the end of November.
Works are due to commence on the site in March 2023 and be completed in 2025, according to the Department of Housing.
The site is expected to be brought before councillors to be disposed to Harcourt in the coming weeks. Similarly, land transfers are expected to take place between the council and Irish Rail to ensure the smooth relocation and realignment of the railway line.
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I mean yeah the lad probably shouldnt have flown close enough to steal a chip but also Russia is quite a good deal closer to the Baltic than the USA. So close in fact that they have a seaport and a major city on it, while the USA is several thousand miles away. USAF hardly taking recon pics of fish.
@stephen: They’re doing lots of training with their NATO allies.
Maybe he was just trying to tell the yank he’d taken a wrong turn…’our submarine base is over that direction’…only sayin!
Given the content of this article any chance The Journal could also report of the NATO jet that buzzed the Russian Defence Ministers plane earlier today ?
Right up beside it and they would have known very well it was a Russian government jet.
Whatever you can say about the posturing both do with military planes involved but to send a fighter jet up to a unarmed Russian government plane seems to be delivering a slightly sinister and not so subtle message.
Did Goose get a polaroid picture of the Russian pilot?
War games
I think the the story needs to add more weight to the fact a US spy plane was operating a few minutes flying time from Russian airspace.
@Aidan O’Donovan: Russian military planes are frequently intercepted off the coast of Alaska, USA
@Diaspora’d: all about the lens your using. Alaska is off the Coast of Russia! The Baltic ain’t near any part of the US, they’re all at this all the time. No biggie
@Diaspora’d: lol Russia is only a couple of miles from Alaska
But was he inverted?
Putin and the Russians have more restraint than any other nation on earth. If the tables were reversed, WWIII would already be on…….
@Patrick Kavanagh: agreed, the US nearly brought the world to nuclear apocalypse in 1960 because the russians moved missiles to cuba, a stone from the yanks. And now nato which is basically the us are building bases and pointing missiles towards russia & they want us to believe the russians are the threat
@Frank McGonigal: ..and the US president responsible was feted and fawned over just a year later when he visited Ireland in 1963.
What was the Russian pilot doing so far from home?
@George Vladisavljevic: Probably out of Kaliningrad.
This headline is a quote from a US military spokesman. I guess it must be true then!!
At the speed they would be traveling at and with only 5′ of clearance between both aircraft all it would have taken to bring both planes down would have a a gust of wind at the wrong time, turbulence or the slightest error of movement by either pilot.
I believe it’s standard practice for all planes to use a transponder, a device that alerts other planes in the vicinity of their presence when they may not be able to see them. It’s worth remembering that no pilot wants to have another plane, commercial or military, accidently fly into them. Russian planes routinely turn their transponders off making them a risk for all air traffic.
@Rusty Balls: yet you likely believe the US spying reconnaissance plane had its on while in Russias back yard!
@Rusty Balls: at the speed they fly at transponders aren’t going to be much use even if they were on.
u wouldnt have seen US spy planes within a 1000 miles of russia 30 years ago. bloody cheek of the yanks in this case
@gregory: Their training with their NATO allies. You know, the countries that broke from the Soviet Union and have no wish to return. Why are these countries so determined to ally themselves with ‘the west’ and not Russia?
@Honeybadger197:
David Hasselhoff
@Thinck: Keep that to yourself though. Say nuthin’…
https://twitter.com/DeptofDefense/status/873260044317593600
Heres a few photos.
@Honeybadger197: A lot more than 5′ between those planes.
@Mick Jordan: Certainly is. Nice photos though. Serious selection of bombers.
@Honeybadger197: thats not it. Different plane different day.
@TeaRex: You’re 100% correct. Apologies.
@Honeybadger197: still great photos though
@Honeybadger197: Great pics. I liked the joke by USDoD in the comments as well.
@Honeybadger197: no need for apologies! They are great photos though!!
I dont see the report mentioning where exactly it happened, other than international airspace. Was it just outside Russian airspace, in which case it was the American pilot was flying too close to a Russian plane.
The Russian pilot should have gone to Specsavers…..
What’s the issue here? If Russian spy planes were flying so close to American air space you can bet your ass they would scramble fights to intercept them.
Pot, kettle, black.
@David Ronan: Its the distance they came to that the US are giving out about. It was simply a stupid thing to do. Both planes could have been brought down by the smallest error or nature.
@Mick Jordan: were the Americans stupid for shooting the Syrian plane out of the sky in Syria this week?
@Cal Mooney: Not if they were defending members of their Special Forces from attack by the Syrian Air Force.
@Cal Mooney: No they were absolutely correct.
@Cal Mooney: you’re wasting your time here Cal….America=great lads altogether, Russia=terrible lads altogether. Sure it even said it on the news. The boys know their stuff.
@Mick Jordan: They never claimed they were protecting members of their special forces but do you think it’s legally OK for a country to shoot down a plane inside that jets own sovereign territory when the aggressor has no legitimate or legal right to be there at the moment?
A nation that is not legally merited to be inside another country has no legitimate claim to use the reasoning of ‘self defence’ at all anyways. Coming legally speaking, not opinionated points of view.
@Andy Brown: sadly different rules and standards are applied to here when asserting who’s right or wrong as usual. West = good, East = bad. Asides from operating illegally without invitation by the Syrian gov., the US has for 5 years now been training, arming and supporting the ‘rebels’ fighting against the Syrian army while ensuring they’re well supplies and enforcing embargoes on Syrian forces restocking supplies. In that time ISIS got to run amuck as the army where kept busy battling western backed foreign invaders under a long changing array of names. The Syrians still and understandable see all forces as illegal and legitimate targets as any country would. The US and our media have been busy ensuring we don’t make the above association and accept US are solely there to fight IS.
Pretty s**t spy plane.
The usual shit from the war mongers . Why can’t they stay at home and kill their own .
American shit.
@Brendan Keegan: Nice abusive comment there, did you ever wonder why these former Soviet Eastern Bloc countries rush to join NATO ? Russia is there nearest neighbor yet they can’t wait to join NATO
Keeping up foreign relations. Yes, I know the finger Goose.
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