Work to get underway in Docklands as over 1,000 new homes to be built next to Páirc Uí Chaoimh
Glenveagh Homes moves a step closer to starting work on the transformation of the Docklands into a residential area. Aiken Promotions has yet to announce any of the lineup for LATM 2024.
For months now the signs have been there: diggers, fences, and clearance work in the Docklands around where the annual Live at The Marquee festival takes place.
The site has been given the go ahead for construction since 2021, and it’s long been a question of when building will start on the development of 12 buildings ranging from four to 14 storeys high which will eventually accommodate more than 1,000 homes.
A recently erected health and safety sign (AF 1) on the perimeter fences by Marina Quarter Ltd, which is owned by Gleanveagh, is just one more indication that ground will soon be broken on one of the biggest developments in the city for years, and one which will eventually put an entire new neighbourhood next to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
That sign indicates the broad outline of the building project: demolition of existing structures including the removal of three underground fuel tanks before work moves into the building of the residential blocks as well as retail outlets, bars, restaurants, cafes, and a pre-school.
The development is situated on the former Ford Distribution site on a five-hectare parcel of land, bordered by Centre Park Road, the Marquee link road, and Monahan Road. Many people in Cork will be familiar with the wasteland as the site of the Live at The Marquee tent, which hosts a month-long music festival in the summer.
Last month Tripe+Drisheen tried to establish the future for the Aiken Promotions-led LATM festival and whether it can continue at the site once construction in the Marina site gets fully underway.
Aiken Promotions told The Echo that it was committed to Cork for 2024, saying that announcements about the lineup for next year’s festival would be made in the first week of November. There have been none yet.
In our piece from last month, Muster Agricultural Society told T+D that they are perennially associated with LATM, but poured hot water on the rumours that the big tent might be moving to Curaheen on the western edges of the city.
There exists, however, in the middle of Cork city centre, a significant empty space where Aiken Promotions could erect a tent: it’s called the Cork Event Centre.
It is a flood zone.
Science predicts a 3 m sea level increase by 2100
All positive signs. Here’s hoping!