€50m event centre set for Cork
Planning will be sought early in the new year for the €50m events centre for Cork city.
One of the country’s most successful commercial and retail property developers, Owen O’Callaghan, plans to move ahead with his development of an entertainment and conference complex on a two-acre site in the city centre after Christmas.
This will be the source of a huge boost for the city’s business and tourism related sectors including the pub and restaurant trade.
Mr O’Callaghan has confirmed the complex is going ahead and will generate up to 400 construction jobs. He said workers would be on site by mid-2011 and the centre would generate close to 200 full-time jobs when completed.
Mr O’Callaghan is understood to have at least two sites in mind, including property he already owns on Albert Quay.
It is a significant development as Cork City Council had been seeking somebody to come up with the cash to fund the centre.
Previously, Mr O’Callaghan has said: “The absence of a modern event centre capable of housing major conferences and entertainment is still a major negative for Cork.
“We feel our proposed event centre is a very viable and deliverable project that will resolve this deficit and provide a major economic boost to Cork city and county and the wider Munster area in terms of jobs and tourism revenue.”
