‘State has little chance of selling barracks sites’
Estate agents around the country yesterday questioned the logic of the Government’s decision to close Army barracks in Mullingar, Clonmel, Cavan and Castlebar.
Although the Defence Minister Alan Shatter maintains the closure of the four facilities will result in annual savings of €5m despite no job losses, property experts in the four towns believe the Government has little or no chance of selling the sites.
David McDonnell of Property Partners McDonnell in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, said the planned closure of the town’s Columb Barracks made no economic sense.
Mr McDonnell said the barracks, which are almost 200 years old, contained some listed buildings which immediately diminished their attraction to potential investors.
“They are zoned open space so it has no development potential. On top of that, there is no market for such properties because there is no money available to finance prospective buyers,” said Mr McDonnell.
Although he acknowledged that the site could have a specialist use such as a medical centre or nursing home, he also stressed that the developers of such projects often preferred to build on a greenfield site because of the high cost of renovating existing buildings.
He claimed the decision to close Columb Barracks made no sense and represented “a false economy”. “When you add in the cost of maintaining the buildings so that they don’t become derelict, it’s hard to see there is any benefit,” said the estate agent.
Kieran Moynihan of Moynihan Curran estate agents in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, expressed a similar negative outlook for the prospective sale of the town’s Kickham Barracks which are also earmarked for closure.
He predicted the Government would struggle to find any buyer for the historic property in the short term, especially as it contained a number of protected structures.
While Mr Moynihan admitted the barracks was on a good site in a good location, he claimed its development potential was limited, as Clonmel was already well served by most of the country’s largest retailers, including supermarkets.
“There’s no obvious anchor tenant and there is no market for development land. The only buyer is likely to be some other part of Government,” Mr Moynihan said.
He also expressed puzzlement at how potential savings could be achieved given the huge social cost involved in the relocation of more than 200 soldiers to other barracks.
An estate agent in Cavan town also rubbished the likelihood of any buyer coming forward to acquire the Dun Uí Neill Barracks located on the town’s Dublin Road.
“It’s unsaleable. There’s no money anywhere,” he stated bluntly.
While it could be used for a number of purposes given it is a relatively new building, he doubted the veracity of rumours awash in Cavan yesterday that the Government already had a buyer for the site.
In Castlebar, a local estate agent said the building which housed the Reserve Defence Forces would have been snapped up for sale just five years ago. “Now, it’s hard to see anyone wanting to buy it,” he remarked.
According to the Department of Defence, a total of 10 barracks have been closed under two consolidations programmes since 1998.
Six barracks — Fermoy, Ballincollig, Naas, Kildare, Castleblayney and Clancy (Dublin) were closed in 1998 with the relocation of 880 soldiers.
The closure of four more barracks — Monaghan, Lifford, Longford and Letterkenny — as well as St Bricin’s Hospital in Dublin was announced in 2009, involving the relocation of 595 personnel.
A department spokesperson said the sale of six properties had fetched €84.98m. Agreement has also been reached for the sale of the barracks at Letterkenny and Lifford in the past week, while Magee Barracks in Kildare and part of the facility at Longford will remain the property of the Department of Defence.
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