The fast-growing Co Kildare commuter town of Kilcock is set to get a badly needed new town centre with the decision by the owners of the former Leaf chewing gum factory to sell the facility which stands on a site of 5.5 acres.

Joint agents Hamilton Osborne King and William Harvey expect to secure over €20 million for the key site which goes for sale by tender on February 22nd.

Kilcock is one of the few remaining towns situated close to Dublin with a rundown town centre because of redundant buildings and vacant sites.

The town centre zoning of the land going on the market will almost certainly mean that much of the town's business and leisure activity will switch to the site, much in the same way as the recently completed Manor Mills has been redeveloped in nearby Maynooth.

The chewing gum factory site has three access points off Church Street and extends on to the Grand Canal at the rear.

There is obvious development potential to provide a shopping centre in Kilcock along with offices, restaurants, a cinema and apartments.

While a two-to-one plot ratio is provided for under the current zoning for the site, the likelihood is that a considerably larger development scheme will be allowed by the planners, given the fact that the site is immediately beside a railway station and is just off a motorway with good bus services to the capital.

The location - which is alongside the Grand Canal - will also open the way for the provision of public amenities at the edge of the water.

Another stretch of the Grand Canal in the town, for example, is regularly used by water polo enthusiasts.

A considerable number of new homes have been built in recent years in Kilcock.

Many more residential schemes are in the pipeline, particularly off the Summerhill Road where large tracts of land have been rezoned.