The next 12 months will prove crucial to the development of the multi-billion regeneration of the Cork docklands and will see the lodging of planning applications by three of the largest developers, Cork city manager, Joe Gavin, has predicted.
According to Mr Gavin, Cork City Council has been in detailed discussions with Howard Holdings and expects the Cork-headquartered company to apply in January for planning for its €1 billion project on a 30-acre site on the old Ford grounds near Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
"We expect to get that application, which will be the biggest we have ever received, in January from Howard Holdings. It will include a 6,000-seat event centre, a 200-bedroom hotel as well as over 200,000sq m of office, retail and residential," said Mr Gavin.
Although the entire 400 acres of docklands is owned by approximately 20 landowners, some six developers own the majority of the landbank, which has assisted in progressing development, and further applications are expected shortly from two more of these, he said.
"IAWS, who have the Odlums building and some 30 surrounding acres, are talking about coming into us in a couple of months time as well with a planning application for the Victoria Road end of the docklands," said Mr Gavin.
"And Gerry Wycherly, who owns substantial property in the former Dunlop plant, also has plans for development, so there's quite active work going on with the bigger developers . . . I think next year will see considerable movement, with buildings in place by 2010." Last September, Howard Holdings managing director, Greg Coughlan, pointed out that development interest and development capital were highly mobile and warned that Cork was in danger of seeing developers moving elsewhere if the docklands project didn't get under way soon.
However, Mr Gavin insisted that the next 12 months would see the start of the transformation of the south docklands and pointed out that much of the effort invested in preparatory work over the past five years by Cork City Council and others would start to bear fruit next year.
He pointed out that the council had been working closely with the OPW on issues of flooding and drainage in the south docklands and a strategy had been devised that would see the raising of land levels by up to three metres to prevent flooding.
"The increase in ground level is necessary to provide a sustainable surface water drainage system and to protect against tidal flooding, and the proposal is based on the Lee catchment study carried out by the OPW," he said.
""We will have to raise road levels along Centre Park Road and parts of Monahan Road . . . the existing ground level in a lot of those areas will become a new basement level," he said.
Mr Gavin welcomed the recent establishment of the Cork Docklands Development Forum under the chairmanship of former UCC president, Prof Gerry Wrixon, and said that while the issue of tax designation for the docklands wasn't crucial, it would help speed up regeneration.
"The city council has made a very strong case for targeted tax breaks for activities in the docklands, like seeking to relocate inappropriate uses down there - the Seveso sites need to be relocated if we are to get the full potential and we're looking for financial support for that.
"We're hoping it will appear in the new Finance Act. There's no guarantee that it will, but we've made a very strong case and I think it stands up to scrutiny, and we will be entering discussions with the relevant department officials over the next two to three weeks."
Mr Gavin rejected any suggestion that failure to get tax breaks for the area in next month's Finance Act would scupper the docklands projects but conceded that it would not make for as full or as speedy a development of the area.