New restaurant for Wine St
138 SEATER RESTAURANT TO BRING VITALITY BACK TO FORMER EXTRAVISION STORE
THE former Extravision store next to the Omniplex Cinema in Sligo is set to be converted into a 138-seater restaurant.
Owners of the site, Strategic Capital Investment Fund plc have been given the green light by Sligo County Planners to develop the former video shop into an Eddie Rockets-style diner.
The owners, who include Davy Real Estate Chief Executive and chartered accountant David Goddard, Davy Director and financial advisor Tom Berrigan and Eamonn Doyle, submitted to Sligo County Council last January that their proposed restaurant will occupy “an underutilised and vacant unit” (Unit W1) on Wine Street.
It’s been vacant since Extravision closed in early 2016.
Sligo County Council granted planning permission to the company last week, subject to seven planning conditions.
These stipulate the restaurant must not operate as a fast-food takeaway, it shall only open between 8am-11pm Monday to Saturday and between 8am-10pm on Sundays, and no permanent stickers shall be affixed to the windows of the unit. It will consist of booth style seating for 138 people.
A decision was due by today, 12 th June but was announced last Wednesday ahead of time.
In their planning application the owners said their proposed development “will address the issue of vacant units within the town with the introduction of an active, vibrant restaurant use.
“The proposed use will also bring an additional amenity offering to the people of Sligo,” they said in their planning application.
County planners noted that the unit had been vacant for a number of years, as have many other units in Sligo town centre.
They acknowledged this had led to “reduced” vibrancy and vitality as well as the associated neglect of the buildings and associated streets of Sligo.
They said the proposal for the former Extravision unit would “result in the occupation of a prominent vacant unit in the city centre and this is to be welcomed.”
Planners agreed a new restaurant at that location, right next door to the Omniplex Cinema and the mix of apartments and shops in Quayside Shopping Centre would help the vitality and viability of the city centre.
However they stressed it was important that the unit would not be operated as a late night fast-food takeaway.
The proposed internal lay out of the seating within the restaurant is very similar to that seen in the American Diner style, such as Eddie Rockets diner chain.
However the name of the new restaurant was not specified in the planning application.