‘Attraction of scale’ will aim to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to Waterford
Cllr Adam Wyse requested an update on the project at the September plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council
The proposed ‘attraction of scale’ will aim to attract hundreds of thousands of people to Waterford city, a council meeting has heard.
Fianna Fáil councillor Adam Wyse requested an update on the project at the September plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.
Cllr Wyse said: “I am looking for an update on the attraction of scale if there’s any further meetings coming up or any update on what we’re actually going with there.
“There’s a lot of people asking about it and I’m just wondering, the money that I believe Fáilte Ireland are going to give for that project or have promised for that project, is that time sensitive?
“Does that have to be spent because I think it’s about time we made a move on it now especially with the South Plaza opening.”
In response, Chief Executive Sean McKeown provided an update on the proposed development.
Mr McKeown said: “Just in relation to the attraction of scale, as we know, that’s a key objective in the Destination Experience Development Plan that was adopted last year.
“It’s a key project that both ourselves and Fáilte [Ireland] are keen to promote.
“As you know, a strategic assessment report has been undertaken in relation to where it should be located, what should it consist of and so forth.
“We had a meeting with Fáilte recently where they confirmed that they now have a finalised strategic assessment report.”
He continued by saying that Fáilte will present the findings of its report to its board before proceeding to the preliminary business case.
Mr McKeown continued: “These are the various stage gates that you must go through in terms of securing capital funding.
“So other than the funding that has been approved for the feasibility, there’s no funding being provided as of yet for the actual attraction.
“We have to go through a number of stage gates before that funding will be approved.”
He outlined that an Expressions of Interest process will likely be carried out in due course.
“The next step is likely to be a call for Expressions of Interest around the kind of pipeline as to what we think the attraction of scale would be.
“The key threshold here is this has to be something that has the capacity to attract around 200,000 people a year.
“That would be transformational, not just for Waterford, but for the region if we could have something of that scale in the city.
“So obviously, quite significant funding involved, but the strategic investment report, next stage, preliminary business case.”
Mr McKeown concluded by saying that that business case will determine what the attraction of scale will be and how much it will cost.