It’s back to the drawing board for the North Quays development in Ferrybank according to South Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan.
Waterford City and County Council have confirmed that the developers Falcon Real Estate are being dropped after failing to prove they had the funding to go through with the project. (Hear what the CEO of the investment fund had to say on KCLR ahead of the weekend deadline for submission of papers here).
New partners and investors will have to be found now to develop the site which is seen as crucial to Waterford city and South Kilkenny.
Deputy Phelan says they will need to look at the design and make-up of the plans again telling KCLR News “They will be looking at other options and other potential developers who might come on board for the development of the North Quays, it’s a site of huge potential still and it may well be that the configuration of the site has to be changed and obviously those are the factors that any new entrant might have to consider”.
Deputy Phelan says future plans for the site should have more housing and apartments and less retail, noting “And the scale of the shopping facilities that were envisaged in the Falcon proposal might well have to be reconsidered, one of the slight criticisms that I had myself and others had too was the number of housing units included was smaller than you might wish to be seen and perhaps that change can be made”.
He adds that the office space that was planned is badly needed for the wider area, saying “Notwithstanding the fact that a great many people are working from home and some will continue to work from home, there will still be a requirement for office space in Waterford, there isn’t much by way of existing vacant office space in the greater Waterford area extending to South Kilkenny so obviously this site is crucially important for South Kilkenny as well”.
