New €10m plan to revive stalled Cork event centre revealed by city council

Cork City Council has tendered for a consultant to assemble and manage an expert team to deliver various facets of the stalled project

The consultant hired by Cork City Council will appoint the team to deliver various facets of the stalled Cork event centre project — from construction consultancy to risk and safety management, and architectural services. Picture: Larry Cummins

Cork City Council is poised to spend several million euro on a dedicated team to deliver the city’s proposed event centre.

The local authority has tendered for a “suitably qualified consultant” to assemble and manage an expert team charged with delivering the various facets of the stalled project — from construction consultancy, to risk and safety management, and architectural services.

The contract, which has a maximum value of €10m, is set to last for four years, while the tender outlines its objective of “enhancing Cork’s metropolitan profile through the delivery of a fully operated multifunctional event centre with a capacity of approximately 6,000 persons”.

The council said the €10m figure represents an upper category cap of fee level necessary as part of the EU procurement process.

“As it is a competitive EU procurement process, it is anticipated that the fee levels will be significantly lower and a fraction of that figure,” a spokesman said.

The project management delivery team will be charged with all aspects of the centre’s delivery, from developing a public procurement strategy, through the drafting of tender documents and managing the procurement process, to overseeing the “design, construction and initial operation” of the centre itself.

The tender is one of the first major steps taken by the Cork event centre project development board. See link below. Picture: Larry Cummins

The total implementation time for the project is set at 51 months, with the first four stages from procurement through pre-construction set to last just under two years, and the remaining two and a half years set aside for the centre’s construction and final implementation.

One of the project delivery team’s first responsibilities will be the composition of a “comprehensive preliminary business case”, the tender documents said.

The launch of the tender will serve as a significant step forward for a project that has been blighted by delays since its sod was turned in 2016. The closing date for applications is May 12.

The tender is one of the first major steps taken by the project development board set up in the wake of last October’s decision by the Government to order a completely new procurement process for the available State aid.

It was decided that given the scale of change in the funding model over the past decade, a new procurement process was required to ensure the project stayed in compliance with EU procurement laws.

The initial tender for State aid for an event centre in Cork was won in 2014 by Dutch construction firm and National Children’s Hospital contractor Bam, which has planning for a venue on South Main St. At that point, the available State aid was €20m. 

The amount of available State funding has since risen to €57m as of 2021, with an additional €30m to €40m believed to be required to bring the project to fruition.

The centre, when finally completed, is expected to cater for events ranging from concerts to conventions and conferences to festivals and TV productions, according to the tender documents.