Waterford council urged to buy Tycor Business Centre after devastating fire
The call was made by Cllr Eamon Quinlan at the May plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
Waterford City and County Council has been urged to acquire the Tycor Business Centre after the building was extensively damaged in a recent fire.
The call was made by Fianna Fáil councillor Eamon Quinlan during the council’s May plenary meeting.
Cllr Quinlan said: “In relation to the Tycor Business Centre, it’s an absolute key resource in terms of facilitating businesses, community groups, adult learning centres and four religious congregations both from the top of the town and beyond.
“I was in there before the fire on several occasions and I must say that the particular community facilities, they’re not designed for community facilities.
“They’re metal sheds, they’re units for a lot of groups that use it, especially with children, they’re cold, they’re a bit damp.”
He went on to call for the council to purchase the site at a discounted price, given its current state.
“I feel that Waterford City and County Council should purchase this site outright at a reduced value and get national funding to have a dedicated business park to facilitate businesses.
“But also in the second half, build an actual community level facility, for religious congregations, many of whom still can’t find a place to go and other community groups and adult learning centres that are specifically designed to be used by them evening to morning to weekends and so on.
“This location is too important to the top of the town to be lost and I think that the council should step in here, acquire the site and rebuild it better than it was before, in order to facilitate the massive backlog we already had with a lot of community groups and religious congregations across Waterford. “
In response, Chief Executive Sean McKeown said that the council is fully focused on the clean-up from the fire at the moment.
“In relation to the proposal to purchase the fire-damaged business centre at Tycor, we’re in a phase now where we are liaising with the owner to ensure that it's properly remediated and cleaned up. That process hasn’t started yet.
“Obviously, there’s a whole range of complex issues to be dealt with there including as I said, our understanding is that there 50 units. Some entities have more than one unit.
“Our understanding is that there are three or four people who own their own units and the vast majority then are owned by the landlord.
“So that’s going to be a very complex situation to work through. There’s insurance and all that so that’s the priority at the moment.”
He went on to say that the council has a good relationship with the main landlord of the building.
“What I will say is that we have good collaboration with the landlord that owns the majority of the units.
“It’s useful that his contract special overseeing the remediation is the same as ours so [instead of] each using different clean-up companies.
“We have only one and the same with the contract specialist overseeing the works so that’s really good to ensure that the whole thing is aligned and seamless.”
Mr McKeown concluded by saying that whilst he would take the suggestion on board, the council’s focus is on the remediation works.
The fire, which broke out in the Tycor area on May 9, caused extensive damage to the roof and inside of the building.
Whilst no one was injured, the fire has come as a big blow to a number of local businesses whose premises are located in the building.