PLANS FOR a €150 million redevelopment of a historic former brewery in Cork city centre include a 6,000-seat events centre as part of a tourist and cultural hub.
The proposal for the former Beamish brewery site on South Main Street also includes cinemas, retail units, offices and student accommodation in seven buildings ranging from four to seven storeys.
Site owners Heineken Ireland submitted the plans as part of a joint venture with construction firm BAM Contractors, following extensive discussions with city planners. The existing 17th-century Counting House with its mock-Tudor facade is to be retained in its entirety, according to director of BAM Contractors Tom Galvin.
An expansive pedestrian area would lead to a shopping arcade on the ground floor of the Counting House, where the old brewing equipment would be showcased. The scheme, “The Brewery Quarter”, aims to create Ireland’s premier arts, cultural and heritage area, say the developers, who expect artists and craft workers to take up retail space with restaurants, cafes, bars and galleries.
The project would open up South Main Street as a shopping and entertainment area, with an imposing events centre fronting on to the river Lee, replacing the Beamish storage tankers and part of a car park currently on site.
The joint venture partners have engaged with Live Nation, owners of the O2 in Dublin, to ensure the centre would be a “world-class performance” venue. Pedestrian links would also be established through the site to St Fin Barre’s Cathedral in the form of a new pedestrian bridge between Parliament Bridge and South Gate Bridge.
A riverside park forms part of the plans, which have been drawn up in sympathy with the original streets and lanes on the site, says Mr Galvin. If the plans, lodged yesterday with Cork City Council, get the green light from planners, the project would create between 250 and 300 construction jobs over a three-year building period.
Conservation campaigners said yesterday they would oppose the plans, claiming the developers had prioritised the site’s profitability over its unique heritage, which they say would be destroyed as a result of the proposal.
“Everyone is in favour of development with the economy the way it is, but you can’t destroy a heritage site. The tourists come to the Guinness Brewery in Dublin to see an old brewery, as they used to do at the Beamish site.
“They do not come for an events centre,” said National Conservation Heritage Group chairman Damien Cassidy.
Heineken Ireland’s corporate affairs manager Declan Farmer had said the 50,000sq m redevelopment of the 4.25 acre site would make it ultimately a tourist quarter.
“When you look at it holistically, it’s a very comprehensive regeneration proposal to be developed in sympathy with existing buildings with links to history preserved,” he said.
“This is ultimately a tourist quarter, with huge ramifications for Cork in general, in socioeconomic terms and what it will bring to the city as a tourist destination.”
Heineken bought the Beamish and Crawford brewery in December 2008 as part of a €10.5 billion international deal.
The closure of the brewery in May 2009 marked the end of an era following 400 years of brewing at the site.