Up to 300 living spaces planned for old toffee factory in Limerick city

UP TO 300 permanent homes, and 300 student bed spaces could be provided as part of a €450m plan to transform a Limerick city centre riverside site.

The Limerick Leader can reveal that the blueprint to develop the former Cleeve’s mill site on the north bank of the River Shannon includes four separate residential developments, as well as a landmark office tower development.

Two years in the making, the blueprint reveals almost half of these homes are planned for the old Salesian School and Convent site at Fernbank, which was bought by the council in 2018.

Also planned is significant land zoned for commercial and mixed use.

And in the blueprint is a new riverside quarter by the Shannon featuring a reservoir, community hub, and “generous public space anchored by heritage”.

It’s anticipated this will offer areas for large and small and informal daytime and night-time activities.

A promenade will also link up O’Callaghan Strand and the popular Westfields Wetlands amenity.

The multi-million euro plan went on public display for public feedback this Tuesday and Wednesday in the Flaxmill building, a protected structure which anchors the Cleeve’s site.

If all goes ahead as planned, this unit will be divided into four floors.

The bottom floor would be used for food and culture, with the upper three levels as creative workspaces, according to the strategy which has been put together by a team of architects including Arup and Mitchell and Associates.

Over €290,000 in funding allocated to Limerick heritage projects

Overall, the 10-acre site is being divided into seven so-called ‘character areas’, reflecting different areas of the vast land, largely out of use since production halted at the old toffee factory last century.

This will include the area at the former Salesian school, Stonetown Terrace, the shipyard and the quarry.

The shipyard site would be home to a landmark office development, which developers say would represent “a gateway to the city”, rising in levels up to Shannon Bridge.

As part of the housing provision, there will be both communal and private gardens, and a boardwalk.

Four parcels of land on-site have been identified for living spaces.

The quarry site will, according to the plans, be home to between 60 and 70 units, while a waterside development with space for 300 students is also being considered around a new reservoir.

Meanwhile, Stonetown Terrace will, the plan states, provide between 40 and 50 homes.

The bulk of new housing, 130 to 150 units, would come at the old Salesian’s School site which neighbours Cleeve’s.

This land was purchased by council, with Limerick Twenty Thirty being the arms-length public firm charged with the redevelopment of Cleeve’s and its surrounds. Between 10 and 20 units will be provided at North Circular Road and O’Callaghan Strand to round off housing in the new neighbourhood.