Kilkenny County Council’s to take out a €24million euro loan to acquire a block within the city’s newest section.
They’re also at advanced negotiations with an experienced operator regarding a hotel at the Bateman Quay end of Abbey Quarter with 190 homes there and a further 100 at Sweeney’s Orchard also planned.
The local authority’s Director of Finance Martin Prendivlle explained to KCLR News’ Dermot Keyes what the move will mean for the team’s office space in the city, noting; “We have grown significantly in terms of the services that have been offered, particularly over the past five or six years and particularly since Covid, we’re already renting two other substantial buildings within the city and so the plan now is to consolidate at two locations; County hall which is obviously still and will remain the head office for the council and then the Block Seven on Abbey Quarter which is an adjacent development down there called The Brewhouse”.
He adds; “We will have third party tenants which will occupy half of the building, we will also have savings on rents that we are currently paying and there will be some shortfall in the funding, we estimate somewhere in the region of 150 to 200 thousand per annum, we have a number of existing commitments which will have expired by the end of 2027, they amount up to roughly €1million so we will have ample capacity there to fund the loan on an annual basis”.
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