Developers to chew over plans for 500 housing units at former Limerick toffee factory

 David Conway, CEO of Limerick Twenty Thirty, and design team architects Karen McEvoy, Bucholz McEvoy Architects, and Simon Carter, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios Architects, 
with a conceptual model of the site. Picture: Arthur Ellis

Up to 500 residential units could be developed on the banks of the River Shannon as part of a €500m plan to transform the former Cleeves Toffee factory into Limerick city's riverside quarter.

The master plan for the historic 10-acre site was unveiled this week by Limerick Twenty Thirty (LTT) and includes proposals for a major new residential, educational, commercial, and public realm. 

The Cleeves factory is one of Limerick city’s most recognisable sites, visible from across the city centre by its 142ft red-bricked chimney stack.

Once home to the Cleeves Toffee and Condensed Milk Company, it was previously one of Ireland’s largest industrial sites of the 19th century.

It also has significant political heritage, having been one of the key locations for the Limerick Soviet of 1919.

Current plans for the new development propose retaining the architectural and landscape heritage of the site, including the 19th century Flax Mill, the landmark red-brick chimney, and the onsite reservoir and quarry.

Other key elements in the masterplan include:

• The development of up to 500 residential units, including some student accommodation;
• A third-level education hub, supported by the signing this week of a Memorandum of Understanding by LTT and Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest (TUS) for TUS to locate on the site;
• A landmark office block, as well as small and medium-sized workspaces;
• A blended working hub;
• Significant public realm, complete with open space, gardens, boardwalk, and reservoir trail;
• Sustainable connectivity to the site comprising regional transport connections, pedestrian access to the city, and maximising the planned new pedestrian foot and cycle bridge planned for the Shannon in Limerick city centre;
• Holistic site-energy system capitalising on renewable energy;
• Small theatre venue and gallery.

A two-day LTT public engagement at the old Flax Mill building at the site saw interested members of the public meet with the design team and discuss the outcome of the master-planning process.

Cost

LTT expects the project to cost in excess of €500m to develop, with a commitment of €35m already in place under the Urban Regeneration Development Fund (URDF).

Following feedback from the public, LTT will complete the master plan and expects to seek expressions of interest from the market by September of this year.

Limerick Twenty Thirty chief David Conway said that the project had reached a key stage. “A huge amount of work and expertise has been involved in bringing this masterplan together," he added. 

"It’s a completely unique site that includes river frontage, historical and iconic buildings, a quarry, and a reservoir, all of which we will be celebrating in the development. That’s an unrivaled mix in an urban context, so bringing all that together is going to result in something incredibly special.”

'Enormous potential'

“The purpose of the public consultation was to inform all interested parties in what we envisage for the site, its enormous potential and to seek submissions on this. To say the least, we’re very pleased with the response as there has been a huge welcome for the sense of ambition, diversity, embracing of heritage, and all-around scale of the project."

Design team architect Simon Carter, of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, said the Cleeves site is “an amazing site, so rich in cultural heritage, with a unique landscape for an urban centre space of this scale". 

“It will be a development befitting a vibrant, modern European city, that will be built to the highest sustainability standards and will be something that Limerick and the region can be really proud of.

“That’s the level of ambition there is for the site from Limerick Twenty Thirty, from the design team and it’s an ambition that is well founded.”