NEW LEASE OF LIFE FOR CENTREPOINT, TRALEE
THE Centrepoint Building, which dominates Tralee’s skyline from its site on John Joe Sheehy Road, is set for a new lease of life.
Kerry County Council have granted the building’s owners Lee Strand full planning permission to convert a significant portion of the building into a HSE Primary Care Centre.
In July 2012 Tralee was identified as one of 35 locations nationwide where new primary care centres were to be developed through Public-Private Partnerships or operation leases.
The planned Tralee facility is to be run by the HSE on the basis of an Operational Lease from the building’s owners Lee Strand
Since 2012 negotiations and discussions with local consultants and GPs have been ongoing.
This month Kerry County Council granted permission for the change of use and conversion of nine units on the second, third and fourth floors into a Primary Care Centre.
The decision follows a similar ruling last month when the council granted permission to convert a first floor office in the building into a doctor’s surgery which will form part of the Primary Care Centre.
Lee Strand have also been granted permission to build a new internal walkway to link adjacent sections of the planned Care Centre.
Built by Lee Strand in 2008, at a cost of €25 million, the majority of the imposing office and apartment development has remained unoccupied ever since.
The Courts Service have leased one floor of the building since 2011 and The Kerry Education and Training Board have rented a large portion of the building since June 2015.
The backers of the controversial, hugely ambitious and now entirely defunct Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence (GPCE) project also had the use of offices in the building for a short time.
Once it is completed the addition of the Primary Care Centre will mean the majority of the building will be occupied for the first time.
The HSE has not provided any information as to when the centre will b operational.
It is not expected to be up and running until late 2018 or early 2019 at the very earliest according to various statements made in the Dáil by Health Minister Simon Harris.