Phoenix: At what point?

Our council recently purchased the Munster Bar and so added another historic property to its portfolio. The fine Union restaurant on The Mall will remain in place and there are apparently some plans to convert the upper floors of The Mall section of the property into offices. These are adjacent to the existing council offices. 

It is not clear what the council’s intentions are for the Bailey’s New Street part of the premises. 

This was originally a small hotel, the Munster Hotel, before the FitzGerald family acquired the property many years ago. It is one of Waterford’s most beautiful pubs and has a nice restaurant area plus the beautiful panelled Oak Room. One can hardly imagine this lovely property being converted to council offices, yet this is what the market may dictate. 

The Viking Triangle does not need another 9 to 5 property, which is closed after business hours, yet it is preferable that the council would own this beautiful property, rather than having it unused and empty, as is the famous T&H Doolan's pub in George’s Street.

The council need for office space is well known, they having never built a proper suite of civic offices in the city, but the purchase raised a general question about the attraction of business investment into the city centre. Why do we have such a problem? 

Some suggest that the development of the North Quays caused a complete loss of focus by council on our historic centre. The council was ill-equipped to manage a Special Development Zone project of that size. Instead of promoting a sequential development, council sought a single, Big Bang developer to do everything all at once, with predictable results. This was desperation planning, when local business is moribund and national politics indifferent and even hostile. Any development is seized upon as the panacea for our well understood ills and to catch up with our peers. Something must be done! 

Everyone sympathises with the council executives who were caught in a trap between grabbing a proposal when it’s on offer and doing nothing. Sometimes, doing nothing is the best course.

The results are obvious today as a project designed for one developer is altered to fit the demands of another. 

The height discrepancy of the new bridge at its northern landing site being a case in point. More funding is required to develop the podium necessary to link the new bridge with the North Quays infrastructure. The delay and uncertainty implicit in this means we have no firm deadline for anything. 

When combined with one too many pedestrianized streets in advance of a properly functioning public transport system, we have created a lack of footfall and a chronic lack of vibrancy after business hours. Close Broad Street or Arundel Square to traffic, but not both. 

We are now in a real bind. Waterford faces intense competition in every facet of modern life from regional towns in the south east and larger cities at national level. Are we winning that battle? 

Retaining the title of Ireland’s cleanest city is a great tribute to the council’s work, but cleanliness should be a given. Any objective comparison between Waterford and its onetime peer cities of Limerick and Galway is unfavourable and chastening. The gap has widened dramatically since 2011. How can we attract business and investment which caters for this city’s economic development and population growth? It’s not clear we have the necessary political (or the politicians), commercial or local business muscle at present to do that.

Harcourt Development's plans to build a hotel and several blocks of apartments on the North Quays will impact development possibilities in the historic city for the foreseeable future. Instead of dealing with issues in the old city, we are consumed with North Quays problems. 

Can we plan in the old city without certainty of what will eventually appear across the Suir? The longer that uncertainty goes on, the more it looks like the development may not be the correct fit for Waterford. By all means build a hotel and aparthotel plus some office space on the North Quays, but do we need such large apartment blocks there? Would more open space not be better, especially on the very constricted section between Rice Bridge and the new pedestrian bridge? This area is sandwiched between Dock Road, the railway and the river bank. 

If apartments are to be developed would low rise blocks, as on the site of Flynn’s pub in Ferrybank, not be more restrained and more suitable for the area? 

Apparently the cost of building relatively high blocks of apartments outside Dublin exceeds the rents that can be attained for them and a small city like Waterford has better access to traditional housing. We don’t have the huge tech employers seen in Dublin and other cities, with their large numbers of extremely well paid employees who can afford high rents. As it is, recent job losses in the tech area suggest a less positive outlook for that sector for the time being. We made huge mistakes with the redevelopment of the Penrose Lane area of the city in the noughties. We can’t afford to repeat them.

The original North Quays proposal came with the proviso that the Saudi developers would also develop the Michael Street area. That always seemed unlikely and never happened. It has left us with a tragic “black hole” of conspicuous dereliction in the centre of the city competing for attention with the North Quays. No coherent plans have emerged for New Street, Michael Street, Stephen Street, Back Lane, Brown’s Lane and even Newgate Street, nor is there any notion when such a plan will emerge and indeed commence. 

The focus on the development of the North Quays is a huge distraction but it must be developed. Meanwhile, the impact of the “black hole” on the city is enormous. It is a cancer in the fabric of the city and is economically metastasizing and poisoning the surrounding areas. In fairness to council, while many splendid new housing developments are springing up around the fringes of the city from Lacken to Ferrybank and Carrickphierish to Williamstown, they push people ever further away from the historic centre. This is not in anyone’s interests.