Dublin People - Village revamp suffers another blow

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Village revamp suffers another blow

Thursday, 10 July 2008

ANOTHER major Northside redevelopment plan has suffered a devastating blow because of the worsening economic climate.
Suspicions were finally confirmed last week when it was announced that the long-awaited revamp of Finglas Village would be scrapped and replaced with a refurbishment project.
The redevelopment of the village, which has been on the cards for over five years, is being managed by Murumba properties (McNamara construction & Spain Courtney Doyle).
Just last month Northside People reported on fears that the redevelopment was in jeopardy after McNamara Construction pulled out of five major social housing projects across the city worth over e900 million.
According to Declan Moloney of the Finglas Traders’ Association, the news will have a detrimental effect on the village.
“Finglas is like a ghost town as it is,” he said.
“The redevelopment was the only hope we had to breathe a bit of life back into the village.”
“Now it’s only a matter of time before we, the struggling traders, turn the key to our businesses for the last time.”
Local businesses had been warned that unless issues with individual traders were ironed-out by June 30 that the plans would fall through.
Plans for the village included the development of 160 apartments and 14 retail units.
Local councillor John Lyons (Lab) said the plans had been put on the long finger for too long.
“The plans should have gone ahead when the economy was doing well,” he said.
“It’s a real pity that so many people who have waited patiently for the redevelopment are now in limbo.
“However, I guess it is something that the developer has agreed to refurbish the shopping centre.”
Cllr Dessie Ellis (SF) said he believed the plans had been effectively abandoned a long time ago.
“It’s very clear at this stage that the outlook is quite bleak for Finglas.
“I don’t think any extra business will be created by the refurbishment of the shopping centre.”
David Courtney of Spain Courtney Doyle clarified their position in relation to the “private development” plans.
“We had set down the date where we wanted to have all our ducks in a row if we were going to continue with the plans,” he told Northside People.
“Unfortunately in this event, things didn’t work out which was down to a combination of factors.
“Certainly the economic climate hasn’t helped matters much.
“In fairness, we gave it our best shot.
“We will now look towards the refurbishment in a root and branch approach in the coming autumn.
“In the medium term we will revisit the idea of the redevelopment.”
He added: “We have a large commitment to the village of Finglas and we have a positive aim of doing what we can for tenants.”

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