€430m entertainment centre planned for Dundalk

[Catmalojin]

Plans for 1,200 jobs in €430m leisure park

ELAINE KEOGH

Mon, Nov 23, 2009

MORE THAN six million visitors a year are expected to visit a €430 million tourism and leisure park that includes a year-round skiing facility and concert arena being proposed for Dundalk.

The project, the first of its kind in Ireland, is being proposed for a site adjacent to the Dublin-Belfast motorway by Innovative Leisure Systems Ltd, who say it will create more than 1,200 full-time jobs.

It will take about seven years to complete the “Altitude” leisure and tourism park. In addition to the ski and nursery slopes, it will have a 100-bed hotel, an 110,000sq ft concert arena, a surf and water leisure dome, a cinema, a bowling alley, a children’s zone and, when legislation is in place, a casino.

The combination of attractions proposed is not available on any other single site in Ireland or the UK, says company director Sam Curran, who was involved in the Ice Dome ski rink in Dundalk.

“We have done extensive work over the last 30 months to finetune . . . our plans. We looked closely at facilities in the UK, mainland Europe, Asia and North America, and the experience is that people are willing to travel to enjoy this type of attraction once it is hitting the right price range and what is on offer is regularly refreshed and added to,” he said.

The project is not reliant on funding from the Irish banks, “and our business model takes on board the current credit crunch situation as many of the key decisions have been taken during the last 12 months. Indeed it is the type of scheme that can contribute to rebuilding the economy.”

© 2009 The Irish Times

Excellent location, midway between the island's two largest cities next to the M1 with easy access to the rest of the motorway network (and rail network). Reminds me of the resort planned for Tipperary that was announced a few weeks ago.