Shipton reveals €100m Fermoy development plan

THE largest single property development ever planned for a north Cork town was outlined yesterday.

The €100 million investment for Fermoy centres around a retail, office and apartments complex.

The plans, the brainchild of The Shipton Group, which built the highly successful Blackpool Shopping Centre in Cork, were shown to business leaders in the town yesterday.

The company proposes to transform a former Cork Marts premises in the town into a complex which will feature a mix of shops, offices, apartments, a seven-screen cinema and 900-space car park.

The company had also initially considered building a hotel on the same site but eventually decided against it.

Clayton Love of the Shipton Group said, to date, it had received “an extraordinary welcome from all whom they had met in Fermoy”. He said once planning permission was secured, the group looked forward to delivering “a really exciting high-quality scheme for the town”.

Mr Love’s Shipton Group has been developing property in and around Cork for the past 30 years and for the past few months, the company has been working with KOBW Architects, Brady Shipman Martin and Arup Engineers on developing an imaginative scheme for the land it purchased off Cork Marts last year.

Cork Marts is building a new supermart, which will be one of the biggest in Munster, on a new site at Corrin, which is 5km south of the town.

The Shipton Group said its Fermoy project is an exciting one, but was not without its difficulties.

The prospect of flooding was a key issue but after extensive research and testing, the company claims it has come up with measures to combat it.

Also of importance was traffic management and the need to integrate and link the development to the existing core of the town centre.

Consultations are continuing with various interest groups and once finished, the Shipton Group will formally release its plans.

The company hopes to lodge an application for planning permission towards the end of next month. If granted, it wants to start construction immediately. The development will reportedly take 15 months to complete.