€2m in grant aid for Trinity Wharf
AMBITIOUS plans to build a new urban quarter at Trinity Wharf took a step closer to reality this week when the Government announced a grant to Wexford County of just over €2 million for the infrastructure stage of the project.
The 2019 allocation of €2.028 million is coming from the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund under Project Ireland 2040 and along with 25% matched funding from Wexford County Council’s own coffers, will provide a total of €2.9 million for the re-development of the old Wexford Electronix site off Trinity Street.
Under a masterplan drawn up by the local authority, it is proposed to build a new urban centre with a hotel, multi-storey car park, office space, a cultural building, residential units and a 61-berth marina with a new boardwalk linking Trinity Wharf with Paul Quay and Crescent.
Wexford County Council hopes the project will enhance the town’s profile as an attractive environment for international companies and estimates that Trinity Wharf has the potential to provide over 1,000 jobs in the technology and financial services sectors over the next five to ten years with the capacity for 1,600 people to live and work in the area.
Welcoming the funding announcement this week, a Council spokesman said it will allow the project to advance through planning, detailed design and the procurement of work contractors for the completion of the site infrastructure works and services.
The infrastructure and civic spaces will be built by the Council to an approximate overall cost of €10 million while offices and commercial buildings will be constructed through public-private partnership at a cost of up to €70 million.
Minister of State Paul Kehoe said he is delighted that Trinity Wharf was selected as a beneficiary of the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund which has an overall allocation of €2 billion up to 2027 with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government having responsibility for its implementation.
‘This is welcome news for Wexford. The fund is the largest regeneration initiative in Ireland for decades and was established to support more compact and sustainable development, through the regeneration and rejuvenation of Ireland’s cities and towns, in line with the objectives of Project Ireland 2040’, he said.
‘It is one of four new funds established earlier this year with a combined allocation of €4 billion up to 2027’. he said.
‘It will enable a greater proportion of residential and mixed use development to be delivered within the existing built-up footprints of our cities and towns and it will ensure that more parts of our urban areas can become attractive and vibrant places in which people choose to live and work, as well as to invest.’