Planning authority to decide on grandiose Chinese trading hub

An Bord Pleanála is due to make a decision this week on the biggest single development yet planned for Ireland

THE SCALE of the Euro Chinese Trading Hub being planned for a 138-hectare site at Creggan, near Athlone, Co Westmeath, is staggering.

At 1 million sq m (well over 10 million sq ft), it would be “14 times the size of the Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown retail centres put together”, according to An Taisce.

The environmental watchdog is among six appellants against Westmeath County Council’s decision last December to grant planning permission for the first phase, which includes a four-storey reception building, three large exhibition halls, nine smaller halls and basement parking for 1,370 cars.

The proposed development, with a floor area of 100,000 sq m, would be a fraction of what’s ultimately envisaged – which includes two five-star hotels, a Chinese palace, 445,000 sq m of exhibition halls, a commercial zone of 264,000 sq m and some 186,000 sq m of serviced apartments.

It would also have a youth hostel, cinema, arts centre, recreation and massage centres, golf course, multipurpose entertainment hall, conference facility, medical centre, fire station, primary school, kindergarten, railway station, two bus stations and a “China Tower” 90m taller than the Dublin Spire.

By providing a place for Chinese companies to sell their wares to European buyers, the Athlone trading hub aims to become “the greatest commercial and trade centre, tour centre, cultural centre, amusement centre and international conference centre in Europe”, attracting up to 35,000 visitors per week.

Strictly in terms of exhibition space (not counting the other facilities), Athlone’s enormous fairground would be nearly as large as Hanover Messe, Germany’s – and the world’s – biggest trade fair, and significantly larger than similar fairground sites in Barcelona, Milan, Frankfurt and Las Vegas.

It is being promoted by Athlone Business Park Ltd, controlled by local developers Aidan Kelly and Michael O’Sullivan, with former Roscommon county manager John Tiernan acting as chief executive. Athlone restaurateur Ken So has been acting as a conduit for the Chinese investors, whose identity is unknown.

Most of the design work has been done in China, with Dublin-based HJL acting as executive architects and Simon Clear and Associates as planning consultants. It has also been facilitated by a local area plan for Creggan, some 2km southeast of Athlone, adopted by Westmeath County Council in September 2010.

Another link that helped to land the project was that Athlone Institute of Technology hosts some 200 Chinese students as a result of exchange programmes with higher education institutes in China forged by its president, Prof Ciarán Ó Catháin. Chinese ambassador Liu Biwei has also been a frequent visitor.

But the €1.4 billion scheme is speculative. A report by Goodbody economic consultants, commissioned by the promoters, states that a survey suggested it could attract “at least 3,000 investors” if completed successfully “and does not face excessive competition from similar facilities being built elsewhere”.

It said the promoters will only start their main sales drive after a grant of permission and are “not yet in contact with a large group of prospective customers. Therefore, it is not possible to validate the economic sustainability of the project based on sales or communications with prospective customers.”

In its appeal, An Taisce noted that planning permission was recently granted for a similar Chinese hub at Birkenhead, on the Wirral peninsula opposite Liverpool. “Clearly, given its proximity to port and airport links, Wirral will always enjoy overwhelming competitive advantages as compared to Creggan.”

An Taisce warned that a “credit binge” in China was “driving a massive speculative property bubble” and cautioned that, if the Chinese economy collapsed, it “would mean leaving a giant looming ghost development at the edge of Athlone – a monument to another economic delusion [should it be granted permission]”.

A letter from Simon Clear and Associates said the design team had “reviewed other potential uses for the proposed buildings in the event that they cease to be used as trading halls”, and they could be converted for “office, light manufacturing, RD and technology type” uses in a future business campus.

Should the trading hub proceed, transport would pose the “starkest problem”, said An Taisce, with visitors arriving at Dublin airport needing “somewhere in the region of 100 coaches a day” to take them to Creggan. Laying on additional trains would be problematic as the railway is single-track from Portarlington.

An Taisce expressed concern that buildings on the site more than two storeys high “may be visible from the . . . Clonmacnoise complex”, some 6km southwest of the site.

“At the earliest stage, in the making of a local area plan for these lands in 2010, we informed the council that this site is wholly unsuitable, and offered to work proactively with the promoters. This offer was not accepted – or even responded to,” according to Ian Lumley, An Taisce’s heritage officer.

But Mr Tiernan said the council’s decision to approve the scheme was a “positive message to our Chinese investors”, for whom Athlone was the “preferred option” to locate such a hub. However, he told the Westmeath Independent: “If it doesn’t happen in Athlone, it will happen somewhere else in Europe.”

Athlone mayor Alan Shaw (FG) said its residents were pleased with the council’s decision. He told the Christian Science Monitor in January that one reason Chinese investors chose Athlone was that, unlike other European states, “Ireland has not been preaching to the Chinese about human rights”.