Three "landmarks" to be demolished

biko · 15-07-2020 1:02pm #1

https://galwaybayfm.ie/galway-bay-fm-news-desk/three-well-known-derelict-city-buildings-set-for-demolition/

Corrib Great Southern Hotel
Dawn Dairies, Dublin Road
Connacht Laundry, Henry Street
are to be demolished.

Paddico · 15-07-2020 3:25pm

Happy days.

Three holes more like it

gordongekko · 15-07-2020 3:29pm

Jesus the neighbours of the areas better put down the rat traps

Diabhal Beag · 15-07-2020 3:29pm

The rats in the Great Southern won't go down without a fight.

Whereisgalway · 15-07-2020 3:39pm

Alan Cheevers Making it sound like he achieved something

flazio · 15-07-2020 4:42pm

I'll believe it when I (don't) see it (anymore).

TheRiverman · 15-07-2020 4:46pm

Corrib Great Southern should have been converted into student accommodation years ago, before it became an eyesore.

beardybrewer · 15-07-2020 5:39pm

I've lived here 15+ years and I had no idea the Connacht Laundry was such a huge site until I checked it out on google maps:

https://goo.gl/maps/FPSsmWwPeYqGF4fu7

Bazzy · 18-07-2020 11:01am

beardybrewer wrote: »

I've lived here 15+ years and I had no idea the Connacht Laundry was such a huge site until I checked it out on google maps:

https://goo.gl/maps/FPSsmWwPeYqGF4fu7

Jaysus its huge plenty of potential

TwoWheeledTim · 18-07-2020 11:31am

beardybrewer wrote: »

I've lived here 15+ years and I had no idea the Connacht Laundry was such a huge site until I checked it out on google maps:

https://goo.gl/maps/FPSsmWwPeYqGF4fu7

Would be a decent location for a BOXPARK type food/drinks setup, short walk from city centre (especially West End). Especially since there's been no progress with the indoor food market in town.

Would love something like that in Galway. Residents on Henry Street might not be too pleased though.

Whereisgalway · 18-07-2020 11:50am

TwoWheeledTim wrote: »

Would be a decent location for a BOXPARK type food/drinks setup, short walk from city centre (especially West End). Especially since there's been no progress with the indoor food market in town.

Would love something like that in Galway. Residents on Henry Street might not be too pleased though.

When you look at the influence the salthill pubs/coffee shops have with removing the small coffee van from the end of the prom and disbandment of the cycle lane along the prom imagine the Latin quarter/west end Would be up in arms with this idea and the CC would buckle

Cheshire Cat · 18-07-2020 11:51am

TwoWheeledTim wrote: »

Would be a decent location for a BOXPARK type food/drinks setup, short walk from city centre (especially West End). Especially since there's been no progress with the indoor food market in town.

Would love something like that in Galway. Residents on Henry Street might not be too pleased though.

Would love that!
However, as far as I know, there is planning permission for a hotel at that site.

Mr Man · 20-07-2020 9:29am

TwoWheeledTim wrote: »

Would be a decent location for a BOXPARK type food/drinks setup, short walk from city centre (especially West End). Especially since there's been no progress with the indoor food market in town.

Would love something like that in Galway. Residents on Henry Street might not be too pleased though.

That would be the worst thing possible for the West. Would be great in the Connacht Tribune site though.

micah537 · 21-07-2020 1:59am

TheRiverman wrote: »

Corrib Great Southern should have been converted into student accommodation years ago, before it became an eyesore.

Well if the idiots running GMIT actually bought it when offered to them instead they offered the Comers Bros more money years later.

gordongekko · 21-07-2020 7:57am

micah537 wrote: »

Well if the idiots running GMIT actually bought it when offered to them instead they offered the Comers Bros more money years later.

Sure if they didnt have the money at the time what are they supposed to do?

Whereisgalway · 21-07-2020 9:46am

gordongekko wrote: »

Sure if they didnt have the money at the time what are they supposed to do?

Exactly

Boardnashea · 21-07-2020 9:53am

gordongekko wrote: »

Sure if they didnt have the money at the time what are they supposed to do?

I understand there is a facility where you can ask a bank for money in order to buy something when you don't have all the money yourself at the time. I think it is called a loan.
There is also a similar thing but where you might not have to give the money back called a grant.
Students are probably familiar with these unusual concepts so I imagine GMIT might have heard about them.

Whereisgalway · 21-07-2020 9:56am

Boardnashea wrote: »

I understand there is a facility where you can ask a bank for money in order to buy something when you don't have all the money yourself at the time. I think it is called a loan.
There is also a similar thing but where you might not have to give the money back called a grant.
Students are probably familiar with these unusual concepts so I imagine GMIT might have heard about them.

Maybe they didn’t see it as part of their vision for the future

micah537 · 21-07-2020 12:48pm

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Maybe they didn’t see it as part of their vision for the future

Vision is what GMIT lacks big time. Compare the way NUI is run compared to GMIT, look at how much land they acquired down through the years. GMIT are very limited to where they can buy suitable land. The Hotel site value was always going to rise in value. They had Chartered Surveyors working as lecturers who advised buying the site at the time.

When it was open, GMIT students were allowed to park there because the parking situation was crap on campus. GMIT always wanted to increase student numbers but were too short sighted to see where accommodation would come from.

@gordongekko I'm sure the business lecturers would know how to fill out an application for a loan.

Whereisgalway · 21-07-2020 1:36pm

micah537 wrote: »

Vision is what GMIT lacks big time. Compare the way NUI is run compared to GMIT, look at how much land they acquired down through the years. GMIT are very limited to where they can buy suitable land. The Hotel site value was always going to rise in value. They had Chartered Surveyors working as lecturers who advised buying the site at the time.

When it was open, GMIT students were allowed to park there because the parking situation was crap on campus. GMIT always wanted to increase student numbers but were too short sighted to see where accommodation would come from.

@gordongekko I'm sure the business lecturers would know how to fill out an application for a loan.

You should apply for a job in GMIT and share your vision and how to achieve this with them

Squeeonline · 21-07-2020 2:02pm

beardybrewer wrote: »

I've lived here 15+ years and I had no idea the Connacht Laundry was such a huge site until I checked it out on google maps:

https://goo.gl/maps/FPSsmWwPeYqGF4fu7

Used to live right next to it. Walked passed it all the time without knowing what was in there. The whole site felt a bit invisible, except for the entrance.

Always felt that someone was just holding on to sell at the right time to the right buyer with deep pockets.

micah537 · 21-07-2020 2:44pm

Whereisgalway wrote: »

You should apply for a job in GMIT and share your vision and how to achieve this with them

When you disagree with someone, do you normally come back with a petty passive agressive comment?

gordongekko · 21-07-2020 3:40pm

Boardnashea wrote: »

I understand there is a facility where you can ask a bank for money in order to buy something when you don't have all the money yourself at the time. I think it is called a loan.
There is also a similar thing but where you might not have to give the money back called a grant.
Students are probably familiar with these unusual concepts so I imagine GMIT might have heard about them.

Maybe when the country in being run by the IMF and the banks themselves are pretty much bust those genius options aren't available

ben.schlomo · 21-07-2020 3:48pm

<snip>

marklazarcovic · 22-07-2020 6:33pm

isnt there huge issues with the laundry accessibility to traffic,any building lorries,there really isnt a exit onto palmyra at the rear,think thats what held it up for so long.

Wompa1 · 23-07-2020 12:23pm

Time for my usual rant.

It's amazing to me that anyone would point to NUIG as an example to follow rather than questioning how they have been able to sustain such spending through good times and bad including economic downturns, expense controversies, sexist hiring\promoting policies.

GMIT is on the same end of the scale too with their own controversies.

It seems like there's very little genuine oversight. The people policing the system are a part of it.

As long as every job announcement includes "chosen for it's impressive pool of highly skilled talent", it's accepted.

A lick of paint for A&E across the road by any chance? :pac:

smurf492 · 23-07-2020 12:58pm

Wompa1 wrote:

A lick of paint for A&E across the road by any chance?

Agree. Disgusting way its been left.

?Cee?view · 23-07-2020 5:29pm

Wompa1 wrote: »

Time for my usual rant.

It's amazing to me that anyone would point to NUIG as an example to follow rather than questioning how they have been able to sustain such spending through good times and bad including economic downturns, expense controversies, sexist hiring\promoting policies.

GMIT is on the same end of the scale too with their own controversies.

It seems like there's very little genuine oversight. The people policing the system are a part of it.

As long as every job announcement includes "chosen for it's impressive pool of highly skilled talent", it's accepted.

A lick of paint for A&E across the road by any chance? :pac:

And what influence exactly do you think NUIG would have on the painting on A&E in the hospital?

Ardillaun · 23-07-2020 6:20pm

It's a bit weird that the CGS was allowed to stay in that derelict state for so many years.

cL0h · 24-07-2020 11:14am

Ardillaun wrote: »

It's a bit weird that the CGS was allowed to stay in that derelict state for so many years.

It's not weird at all. It's owned by the billionaire Comer Group who own a tonne of other property around town. A few you might know are the Connacht Hotel, Odeon House, O’Connell’s Bar, An Pucan but they have tonnes of office and residental too, here and all over the country. Connacht Laundries is owned by the Comer-McHale consortium. The council and the city manager suck up to these people, not the other way around.

A second important point is that people think these sites are for sale. They're not. With super low interest rates they are being held as assets over the long term. They might get demolished but you're unlikely to see any sort of development on them in the near term. This, despite the fact we have had a severe lack of housing, a homelessness problem and a city peppered with eyesores for over a decade now.
The City Councillers might be fielding complaints from the public but the unelected city manager Brendan McGrath and his office has had no interest in calling these absentee landlords to task.

Whereisgalway · 24-07-2020 11:25am

cL0h wrote: »

The City Councillers might be fielding complaints from the public but the unelected city manager Brendan McGrath and his office has had no interest in calling these absentee landlords to task.

And our elected TD’s only come out with sound bites, extragavent expenses and nepotism

ben.schlomo · 24-07-2020 11:32am

Whereisgalway wrote: »

And our elected TD’s only come out with sound bites, extragavent expenses and nepotism

Yawnnnnnnnnnn.

Mrs OBumble · 24-07-2020 1:44pm

cL0h wrote: »

....the Connacht Hotel, Odeon House, O’Connell’s Bar, An Pucan but they have tonnes of office and residental too, here and all over the country. Connacht Laundries is owned by the Comer-McHale consortium. The council and the city manager suck up to these people, not the other way around.

....city manager ... and his office has had no interest in calling these absentee landlords to task.

Most of the sites they own are in use. That means rates are due on them. Presumably these rates are being paid. If so, then the owners are worth considerable inwards cashflow to the city. Pissing off people who are actually paying rates would not be a smart idea.

It's not the Comer's responsibility to be providing social housing. There's plenty of vacant land and houses for that, if the government wanted to allocate money to it.

Ardillaun · 24-07-2020 8:57pm

cL0h wrote: »

It's not weird at all. It's owned by the billionaire Comer Group who own a tonne of other property around town.

I don’t think we disagree too much on this. Owners of such property should be obliged to maintain them. The Comers bought the burnt remains of the Shannon Oaks in Portumna and took years to do anything with that as the rest of the town went down the tubes.

https://connachttribune.ie/locals-demand-action-on-dilapidated-shannon-oaks-hotel-009/

Looks like we may be seeing some progress there at last:

https://www.advertiser.ie/Galway/article/113328/council-grants-permission-for-re-development-of-portumna-hotel

Geuze · 26-07-2020 1:26am

I have wondered why the Dawn Dairies site is on the VSR, but the Corrib Great Soutern hotel isn't?

Three "landmarks" to be demolished

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