The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
UNITED Metal Recycling (UMR) group have just completed the acquisition of Cahercon and have plans to develop a boutique hotel, language school and holiday home complex.
On Wednesday spokesman Tony Donlan, who has close personal ties to Clare, said that it could be in operation as early as the summer of 2024, and 70-100 jobs could be created.
He also said that the redeveloped property will not be used for the provision of emergency accommodation, while he stressed that he wishes to provide employment to local people.
Mr Donlan said that the company has expertise in taking on derelict or out of use buildings, restoring them and allowing for new economic activity. “We have roughly two and a half million square feet of property nationwide. We’ve been in the scrap metal business for the last 40 years. The Hegarty family and the Donlan family amalgamated a number of years ago, put the two businesses together and drove on from there.
“We saw a niche in the market a number of years ago, we started to invest in properties that were on the point of closing or were defunct or were an eyesore. We’d step in, do a deal with clients, buy the properties, cleanse them, refurb and rebuild them and today they provide employment.”
In Clare they have been involved in the sites formerly occupied by Avara and Molex in Shannon.
He said that in the recent past he has been involved in a business that revitalised a rural area and he wants Kildysart to be reinvigorated. “Clare needs employment, needs economic activity and Kildysart is a place that needs to be brought up a bit. In 2005 or 2006 I bought a bar in a place called Ballycommon. It was only four walls after being burned out. The business there today is employing over 40 people, there’s a pub, restaurant, shop and bakery at a country crossroads.”
He sees huge opportunity at the former boarding school and convent. “Cahercon is a real jewel. It’s a building that has to be treated with the highest of professionalism in rebuilding and restructuring. We have plans for a boutique hotel, a language college and to develop a residential complex there, one of those kind of places where you can go away and relax. People could rent them for a week or a weekend or a month.
“The scenery is unbelievable. There’s a large amount of land with the property, there’s unbelievable scope for outdoor pursuits and water sports. There’s 3.7km of shoreline, so there’s a lot of opportunity. It’ll take a lot of effort and time, and it’ll cost money, but we just have to get on with it.”
He says that it should not have been allowed to decay in the way it was. “To have the property let go over the last number of years was a crying shame. The longer it’s left the harder it is to put back. You have the beautiful ceilings, beautiful centrepieces, marble stairwells, brass banisters. There was no money spared in the early days but if something isn’t maintained, gets damper and damper, it’s not going to improve.
“My plan as well as being for a language college, boutique hotel, accommodation and a sports venture, I want it to be a place for the locals to come. I intend to employ local people on this job. I already employ six guys locally and there’s probably another 15 to follow.”
He also plans to have a swimming pool and leisure centre on the site and wants to make progress in the near future. “The thing is to have the right people at the start and do it right. This time next year there could be 80 to 100 jobs. We’ll be going at it straight away, we won’t be fooling around.”
Separately, Mr Donlan said that the decommissioning of Roche had seen a chance for economic development missed in Clare, as the site could have been repurposed effectively.
A former Salesian Convent, Cahercon operated as a secondary school until 2002, but has been unused for years now, with earlier plans for a maritime training facility at the site coming to nothing.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
