The publicity pack for Carrickfergus Waterfront, a blossoming retail, housing and business complex just 15 miles from Belfast, includes a quote from Shakespeare on the opening page. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood leads on to fortune . . . on such a full sea are we now afloat".
This weather, the water around the picturesque Carrickfergus marina looks choppy. But buoyed by Alderman James Brown, chairman of the Maritime Area Partnership, the local borough council is confident that the complex can revive the town best known to outsiders as the subject of a plaintive love song, or as the place where UVF gunrunning ship Clyde Valley famously berthed in the mid-70s.
Alderman Brown has been involved with the project from the beginning and remembers local opposition to proposals in the 1980s to tear down the commercial harbour in favour of a recreational marina along the lines of Bangor, Co Down and Malahide, Co Dublin. The result - a bustling waterfront full of boats, apartments with stunning views, a multiplex cinema, supermarket and restaurants set in the shadow of the town's historic castle - has been described somewhat ambitiously as California meets Carrickfergus.
"I have been involved since the skirmishing stage," says Brown, sitting in the conference room of the marina's latest addition, an administration building and apartment complex on the water's edge. Back then the harbour raised £25,000 a year in extra income for the council. The newly developed marina and its 300-plus inhabitants generate around £250,000 in extra rates.
"And it is much more pleasant without the sulphuric acid and coal containers that used to be the main features when the harbour was operational. There was a romantic view of the old harbour which was at the heart of opposition to the project, but after two public inquiries in the early 90s we were given the go-ahead to rejuvenate the marine area and the town itself," he says.
The marina project was embarked on with the North's Department of the Environment as a partner. Morrison Developments was awarded the tender for the development of the private sector of the complex and so far the total for the mostly private investment is hovering around the £60m sterling mark.
There is a retail development where oil tankers once stood, as well as a Co-Op, Pizza Hut, McDonald's, a diner and Carrickfergus's only cinema. The residential accommodation is a colourfully painted mix of townhouses and apartments, now some of the most sought-after homes in the North for professionals commuting to Belfast and retired couples.
In the mid-1980s, properties in a pilot housing scheme in Rodgers Bay - named after pioneering ship builder Paul Rodgers - were being sold for between £35,000 and £40,000. Similar two-bedroom properties now boast an asking price of over £100,000 while penthouses on the marina are fetching more than £250,000.
But it is not just local residents who can enjoy the almost year-round marina facilities such as sailing and other watersports as well as a number of waterside promenades. "We have tried to make it as accessible as possible so that all the people of Carrickfergus and surrounding areas can use it. Some marinas have a kind of exclusive air but this one is for everybody," says Brown. The development is symbolic of the aspirations of business people to capitalise on the climate of hope in post-Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland. "We wanted to stop looking back and start looking forward," he adds.
The final piece of the marina jigsaw, a flagship hotel beside the old harbour walls, has yet to be put in place. The borough council is looking for a suitable investor who can see the potential in a Carrickfergus Marina hotel in a unique setting beside the sea and the majestic medieval castle.
"What has been achieved is quite remarkable and even some of those who were opposed to the project in the beginning have approached me to say they had changed their minds," says Alderman Brown, who says the only disappointment has been that the rejuvenation of the town centre has not been as successful. "I see the marina as a champagne fountain that sooner or later will spill over into the town".
