Massive development planned for Tullamore town centre

A MASSIVE residential and commercial complex rising to as many as 13 storeys is being planned for Tullamore town centre by local developer Seamus Kane.

The project will be located on the empty former Tesco site which comprises the former supermarket building and a disused car park.

About 200 apartments and 45,000 sq feet of retail space will be developed on land between Patrick Street, Kilbride Street and close to William Street.

UPDATE: See the first images of the massive development in Tullamore

Mr Kane's company Cayenne Holdings Ltd is applying to Offaly County Council for planning permission for the multi-million euro development and he has scheduled an information briefing with Tullamore Chamber and other representatives this evening (Tuesday, February 6).

“It's exciting for the town,” Mr Kane told the Tullamore Tribune. “I lived on Church Street above Freddie's shoe shop and my wife Emer had her beautician business so we know what the town centre was like years ago with people living in it.”

The developer added: “We want to give the town centre back the sense of community it had before.”

He added that he was well familiar with Patrick Street in particular because he has developed the Spar retail store and deli there at Hayes' Cross.

A planning notice for the proposed complex describes it as a large scale residential development at a site consisting of the DE Williams House and De Bruns on Patrick Street and the car park and former Quinnsworth building.

The mixed use development of residential and commercial, including retail, cafe and restaurants, will be in six blocks from two to 13 storeys.

There will be 204 apartments in four buildings, including 102, one-beds, 91 two-beds and 11 three-beds.

The blocks will be five, six, eight, and between 11 and 13 storeys high. A two to three-storey block will be partly contained within the former De Bruns public house, with a change of use to two cafes or licensed restaurants.

DE Williams House, a protected structure on Patrick Street, will have five cafes/restaurants to its rear.

Access for traffic will be both from O'Connell Street (which is off Kilbride Street), as well as Offaly Street and William Street.

Another local developer, Tony Flanagan, has begun work on an Aldi store at the former Texas/Irish Mist site adjacent to the Cayenne Holdings land.