Council urged to purchase and rebuild Tycor Business Centre

A local councillor has advised Waterford City and County Council to consider purchasing the Tycor Centre and rebuild it.

The centre was devastated by fire over the weekend, with over 30 units operated by businesses and community groups destroyed.

Speaking at yesterday’s Plenary meeting of Waterford Council, Cllr Eamon Quinlan (FF) said that the building was never designed for the abundance of community facilities contained within.

He suggested that the Council purchase the building now at its reduced value, and obtain funding to create a dedicated, state-of-the-art business and community centre.

“It is an absolute needed resource in terms of facilitating businesses, community groups and religious congregations for the top of the town and beyond” Cllr Quinlan said.

“I was in there before the fire on several occasions, and I must say the units are not designed for community facilities. They are metal sheds, they’re cold and they’re damp.

“I feel Waterford City and County Council should purchase this site outright at its reduced value and split it in two. Get national funding to have a dedicated state of the art business park to facilitate businesses, and also build a community led facility for religious congregations and community groups who still can’t find a place to go.

“Its location is too important to the top of the town to be lost, and I think the Council should step in here and rebuild it better than it was before.” 

Responding to Quinlan’s comments, Chief Executive of Waterford City and County Council, Sean McKeown, said the suggestion will be taken on board, but for now the Council are focused on remediation works with the current owner of the centre.

“In relation to the proposal to purchase the fire damaged business centre at Tycor, we’re in a phase now of liaising with the owner to ensure it is properly remediated and cleaned up. There’s a whole range of complex issues to be dealt with there.

“Our understanding is there are three or four people who own their own units in the centre, and the vast majority of the units are owned by the landowner, so that’s a very complex situation to work through with insurance.

“What I will say is we have good collaboration with the landlord who owns the majority of the units.

“We’ll take on board the suggestion, but our priority at the moment is to ensure the remediation works are undertaken properly.” 

(Funded by the Local Democracy Scheme)