Construction projects put into question
Sunday September 21 2008
BUILDING projects worth billions of euro are being mothballed or put on a go-slow around the country.
But some developments, like the Beacon South Quarter in Dublin's southside, have managed to put a gloss on an apartment project which has slowed dramatically.
The facade of the apartment block has been shrouded in a €50,000 drape with images of elegant apartment dwellers gazing out over the Sandyford area.
There was no work being done on the apartment block last week though the fitting out of a new unit for Bank of Ireland was continuing on the ground floor, which is earmarked for retail units.
Landmark Developments declined to comment on the current status of the project, but in June a spokesman said the massive drapes were applied to the unfinished building's facade to make it more aesthetically pleasing for the 1,600 residents currently living in the Beacon's completed blocks.
He also said that the curtain wall glazing for the facade wasn't due for delivery until January 2009 and he denied the project was mothballed.
Around the country there are a number of major developments where work has almost stopped .
In Limerick, the Parkway Valley project by Dunloe Ewart, part of the Zoe Group, is planned to be a prestige retail development comprising approximately 58,415sq metres of retail floor space.
But only one of the eight cranes on the site was working last week and an influx of workers expected after the builders' holidays has failed to materialise.
Meanwhile in Cork a €1.4bn re-development project for the city's docklands -- one of the biggest construction projects in the State -- now hangs in the balance.
Key to kick-starting the programme is an €80m 'swing-bridge' over the River Lee which is speculated to be one of the capital projects now put on the long finger by the Government.
Similarly, a request for tax-breaks for the Cork docklands project has apparently fallen on deaf ears in the Department of Finance
Private developers have warned that their €1.4bn mixed-use docklands project is entirely dependent on the provision of the new bridge.
The giant Atlantic Quarter project -- masterminded by Howard Holdings -- has already been hailed as the spark for a 'new Cork' with its revitalised docklands serving as a strategic counterweight to Dublin and the eastern seaboard.
With the IFSC in Dublin and the Titanic Quarter in Belfast, Cork's Atlantic Quarter aims to create almost 5,000 jobs and will radically transform the city's historic docklands by Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
The project -- the centrepiece of which is a 30-storey 'green' tower block -- aims to kickstart the overall €8bn regeneration of Cork's entire 420-acre docklands.
However, the developers have warned that the entire project hinges on the provision of a new eastern access bridge across the River Lee.
The iconic bridge design was paid for by the developers, but they insisted that the bridge construction itself was a matter for Cork City Council and the Government.
If sanctioned, the 'swing bridge' will be the largest of its kind in Europe.
- JEROME REILLY and RALPH RIEGEL
