Work to begin on €50m convention centre

WORK starts today on a €50 million, 16,000-seater convention centre in west Dublin - the first phase of a proposed €800 million plan that will transform the area.

“This will be one of the finest convention centres in Europe,” confident developer Jim Mansfield said. He is also the owner of four-star Citywest Hotel and conference centre.

Chief executive of Citywest Hotel, John Glynn, said most of the work would be finished in time for the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in March, with the “finer details” being completed late next year.

The new arena will be eight times bigger than the long awaited National Conference Centre.

Last week the Government advertised for submissions for the centre catering for a minimum of 2,000 delegates.

This process prompted Mr Mansfield to note: “It will take four or five years to build their centre”.

Mr Mansfield’s aim is to provide a “one-stop shop” for international conventions that can compete with other large conference centres, such as the NEC in Birmingham, for major European and world events.

The former truck driver-turned-entrepreneur said: “I want the whole package for Saggart. Once you have the whole package you have something to offer customers.”

Mr Mansfield and fellow Citywest developer Brendan Hickey want to fund and build a Luas spur linking Citywest to the Abbey Street-Tallaght line from the Red Cow roundabout.

It would cost €20 million to build the five-kilometre spur, according to Mr Mansfield, who is determined to pay whatever it takes to provide the rail link.

Luas, funded by the taxpayer, is costing at least €775 million to cover 24km. Other projects that have come off the Mansfield drawing board are an airport near Lucan, a five-star hotel and championship golf course in Palmerstown and a further 150 bedrooms onto his two Citywest hotels.

Ambitious plans, first mooted by Mr Mansfield some years ago to build Ireland’s first Formula One race track, have been shelved following talks with the FI boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Mr Mansfield catapulted into big time business in the 1980s when he sold 100,000 tonnes of machinery left over from the Falklands War for £100 million (€126.97 million), nearly seven times more than he paid for it.