The Dyke Road carpark and Black Box site could be set for a €170 million development to start in 2022 made up of student accommodation units, office space, a ground-floor retail area and a multi-storey parking facility.
The Dyke Road carpark and Black Box site could be set for a €170 million development to start in 2022 made up of student accommodation units, office space, a ground-floor retail area and a multi-storey parking facility.
According to City Council Chief Executive, Brendan McGrath, the proposed development – which also includes a new footbridge linking the site to the NUI Galway and UHG – would be ‘transformative’ for the area.
He said the new footbridge and cycle bridge would eventually link into the Connemara Greenway project with the potential to bring thousands more tourists into the city.
However, a number of city councillors at a meeting this week were highly critical of the proposals put forward by the State’s Land Development Agency in an Initial Feasibility and Options Analysis report, saying that it did nothing to address the city’s housing crisis.
The plan – which also outlines the option of relocating the Black Box performance area to another part of the city – was described as ‘off the wall’ by Cllr Michael Crowe (FF) while Cllr Colette Connolly (Ind) said she didn’t know ‘what planet the people behind this plan were on’.