WE WILL TURN ST SENAN’S INTO LUXURY APARTMENTS
New owners announce ambitious plans for ‘most beautiful building in Wexford’
BIG PLANS have been announced for the former St Senan’s Hospital, pictured right, after new owners took possession of the historic building last week.
It was purchased by a consortium headed by Bree native Eamonn Galavan, managing director of the NitroFert fertiliser company in New Ross. Now the consortium plans to install up to 50 luxury apartments in St Senan’s.
‘We believe that we have acquired the most beautiful building in the county,’ said Mr Galavan. ‘Our aim now is to preserve this historic building and fit it out with up-scale apartments that are becoming of the building.’
BIG plans for the vacant St Senan’s Hospital building have been unveiled after the new owners officially took possession on Friday. A consortium of four local businessmen, headed by Bree native Eamonn Galavan, Managing Director of NitroFert fertiliser company in New Ross, officially took possession of the property last week and have great plans for the building.
A protected structure, St Senan’s was put on the market at the start of this year carrying a price tag of €780,000 and was snapped up by the consortium who now plan to install up to 50 luxury apartments in the building and on the site. The purchase of the St Senan’s has been largely welcomed by the local community, many of whom feared that the historic building would be allowed fall to rack and ruin in a similar fashion to the old hospital building in Wexford town.
‘We believe that we have acquired the most beautiful building in the county, if not the country,’ said Mr Galavan. ‘It really is a national treasure. Our aim now is to preserve this historic building and fit it out with up-scale apartments that are becoming of the building and of the site.’
Mr Galavan says that the group has already appointed a top conservation architect to the project and they are hoping to start remedial works from the beginning of January.
‘ There’s a lot of work to be done on the building before we even start properly,’ he said. ‘We have to do the roof and the towers need to be looked at. It’s got beautiful 12 foot ceilings that will look amazing. We will be putting a team together now though and we hope to start this initial work on preserving the building from the start of next month.’
While all further work is subject to planning permission being granted, Mr Galavan says that he is hopeful that things will move quickly enough.
‘We can’t believe the goodwill and the positivity that we’ve been greeted with so far from the town and surrounding areas,’ he said. ‘We hope to continue to work well with the council and to preserve this wonderful building in a way that will benefit the town and everyone involved. We’re very excited about it.’
Chief executive of Enniscorthy & District Chamber Catriona Murphy welcomed the move and offered their assistance in any way possible.
‘We’re here to help Enniscorthy and progress the economic sustainability of the area,’ she said. ‘We would like to welcome and congratulate Eamonn and Mairéad on their announcement. It may have been a long time coming, but it’s perfect timing in terms of other developments that are happening in the town.’
Timing does appear to be very good for the project, with the UN Centre of Excellence in Energy Efficiency to be built next door, and students expected to arrive from all over Europe. Similarly, Enniscorthy continues to be linked with a move to house a new IT Carlow campus with a neighbouring site being touted as a viable option.