Major employers support plans for new ‘urban quarter’ at Galway Docks

Some of the biggest employers in Galway – including Medtronic, Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise – have come out in support of the plans for a €100 million ‘urban quarter’ development at Galway Docks.

The ‘Bonham Quay’ project – which would create office space for 2,600 workers – has also garnered support from the likes of NUI Galway, Galway Chamber, Galway City Business Association, Galway Technology Centre, WestBIC, Galway City Innovation District and Insight (the National Research Centre for Big Data) and the Harbour Company.

The companies and agencies all believe the project will address the chronic lack of ‘Grade A’ office space in the city and attract more Foreign Direct Investment – by creating 26,000 square metres of office space in four blocks overlooking the Docks on the former Topaz oil tanks site.

However, the plans have also met with objections from several leading names in the city’s arts community, including former senior figures in Macnas and Galway Arts Festival.

Gerard Kilcommins, Vice President of Medtronic – Galway’s largest private sector employer with more than 3,500 staff –described Bonham Quay as “key for the future development of Galway City”.

Mr Kilcommins, who is also the Chair of Action Plan for Jobs (West Region), said: “There is a distinct lack of office space in Galway City, so this, coupled with the quality of life offering available for people here, will position the city well in this time of competitiveness considering the changing political environment.”

His comments were echoed by Pat Hession, Site Director with Cisco in Oranmore said the project would attract further FDI to Galway and drive employment in the region.

Entrepreneur Barry O’Sullivan of RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den, said his company, Altocloud (based in the PorterShed in Eyre Square) employs 25 highly-skilled people, and he intends to grow the company to employ hundreds of people.

Mr O’Sullivan said the company will soon outgrow the PorterShed, and Bonham Quay is an ideal location.

Maurice O’Gorman of the Galway City Innovation District, which operates the PorterShed, said: “Having opened in May 2016, we now have over 20 resident companies employing close to 100 directly. We have held over 100 events with over the 2,500 people in attendance.

Paraic Breathnach, founder of Macnas and Director of Galway Arts Centre, submitted the following objection to planners: “In my view, the cultural space allocation contravenes the spirit of the City Plan. The building is too big. There are not enough homes. It is a poor design.”

Production designer and Macnas co-founder Tom Conroy – who won an Emmy award for his work on the hit TV show The Tudors – told the Council that while he welcomes the vitalisation of the Docks, the Bonham Quay plans “fall very short of doing justice to the potential of this setting”.

He said the sheer scale of the development – 118 feet high – would lead to a precedent for the rest of the Docks and for Ceannt Station. Mr Conroy said that not having a healthy 30% residential mix would be a tragically missed opportunity to address the city’s housing shortage.

Mr Conroy – who previously served on the board of Galway Arts Festival – added that 75 square metres of cultural space was “derisory” and described it as a “token nod” to the Development Plan.

Mr Conroy’s objection was supported in a separate submission from Trish Forde, former Artistic Director with the Arts Festival.
For extensive coverage of the submissions, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here, or download the app for Android or iPhone.