From the Kilkenny Poeple -
http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=2594&ArticleID=3138150
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800 new jobs for South Kilkenny
EIGHT HUNDRED new jobs will be created in South Kilkenny over the next 12 months in a massive multi-million development.
The jobs which will be mainly in retail will be created when the state-of-the-art mixed-use centre in Ferrybank opens in September 2008.
Four hundred workers are employed on site during the construction period.
Kilkenny city man Derry McPhilips is behind the ambitious project
which will also generate E2 million in development charges for Kilkenny County Council.
This money will be ringfenced and used to improve services across the county.The mixed retail centre will provide the people of South Kilkenny with their own urban centre.
From autumn 2008 shoppers from places like Slieverue, Piltown, Mooncoin, Mullinavat and Glenmore will have the option of staying on the Kilkenny side of the River Suir to do their weekly supermarket shopping.It has been confirmed that Dunnes Stores will be the anchor tenant in the E120 million centre.
The complex includes over 20 shop units, a health and beauty court, food court, medical centre, gym, retail warehousing and office space. A car sales outlet, drop-in childcare facility and offices will be built in a second building. There are also plans in the pipeline to add a cinema multiplex and a public library to the development.
Part of the plans include the construction of a rooftop work village.
"This will be built on the rooftop and will centre around an external courtyard. There will be own door offices and an anchor office unit," Mr McPhillips said.
"We have deliberately separated the work and retail space and there will also be car spaces available to office workers," he added.
Planning permission for the development was granted by Kilkenny County Council in August 2006.
Objections to the plans were also lodged by Waterford City Council, Carrick on Suir Town Council, a residents association in Belfield, discount food chain Lidl and local man John Mullally.
The site was bought by Deerland Construction in 2000.
"We will be expanding the centre in the next few years but we will be working in tandem with the county development plans and we will be working within the template of the 2008 plan," Mr McPhilips said.
Ferrybank currently has a population of 4,000 but this is expected to increase to 20,000 in the next eight years.
"Ferrybank will become the second biggest town in Kilkenny."We are in there first providing a centre on a sufficient scale to meet the needs of this emerging urban population.
"Ferrybank will be a mixed-use development with a gym and a medical centre. There will also be plenty of good food on offer and we hope to build a cineplex and have a hotel and a bar.
"There is clearly a demand for this type of development in Ferrybank. At the moment people have to get into their cars and drive to Waterford to avail of these services," he said.
• For more see page 1 of the Property section.
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I like the bit about the fact that the money will be ringfenced and spent elsewhere in the County. I.E not a penny will find it's way into the Ferrybank area
so much for this only being a neighbourhood centre when they now intend to draw customers from a 25 mile radius
Second largest town in Kilkenny... in reality a suburb of Watertford City are they finally ackowledging that Kilkenny is a TOWN and not a City