Developers to woo city sports clubs with relocation offers

PLANS for a 6,000 to 10,000-seat events arena similar to Belfast’s Odyssey Arena have been proposed for a site west of Cork city as a new home for the Munster Showgrounds.

Developers Fleming Construction have offered to build a new show facility with multi-purpose arena at Curraheen, just off the Ballincollig bypass, in exchange for the Showgrounds’ current 22 acres of land at the Marina, in the city’s docklands.

Fleming Construction bought 126 acres of zoned amenity land at Curraheen last year for €17 million.

It is to woo city and suburban sports clubs with offers to relocate them to purpose-built facilities there in exchange for their valuable playing fields and sites.

They have offered to build a multi-use arena, with 6,000 elevated seats (and more seating at floor level) and restaurants and bars, which could hold concerts and exhibitions.

The proposal also includes a floodlit outdoor arena with showing rings, 100 stables, 20 acres of parking and an independent income stream of €120,000 to the Munster Agricultural Show Society, a registered charity.

A spokesperson for the company, which is a major house building firm in Cork and Dublin, among other interests, has declined to reveal their plans for the Showgrounds site, and its swap offer is subject to what it terms a marketable freehold title.

However, City Manager Joe Gavin, who yesterday met with Munster Showgrounds development committee chairman Gerard Murphy, stressed the City Council’s position that the best place for an events/ conference centre was by Kent Station.

The current zoning at the Showgrounds site is for amenity use, Mr Gavin stressed.

He said the council had a strong policy against amenity lands and green spaces, or sporting facilities like the Showgrounds or Páirc Uí Chaoimh, being handed over for development.

“We are very, very adamant that will be strongly enforced, there is a value in central open green spaces in a city and suburbs,” said Mr Gavin.

The council is landlord of the Showgrounds site, which is let under a long lease at a low rent to the society, for specified uses, he pointed out, and said the council had sought to buy back the lease.

The Munster Show Society Committee met last night to decide whether to allow its development committee continue preliminary discussions with Flemings.

Other developers, such as Howard Holdings, are also keen to secure such pivotal sites in the docklands.

A new local area plan for the south docks, including sites on the Marina, Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the Showgrounds, is to be prepared by the council this year.