Companies in China will rent out warehouse/showcase space.
People from the rest of world will come to view the products, prototypes, and demonstrations without the hassle of having to get visa’s etc for China.
I dunno, it seems mad.
Let em off TRE. Create a few building jobs and they can use it as a halting site or something when they are finished.
This makes less sense than the Super Casino in the arsehole of Tipp but yet it’s given the green light. :strokechin: Was it supposed to be published this day last month?
THE first phase of a massive 337-acre international China trade hub in the Midlands has been given the go-ahead by An Bord Pleanala.
Bigger than Dublin’s Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown shopping centres put together, the overall exhibition centre is reckoned to be the largest development built in Ireland.
The €175m first phase of the Europe China Trading Hub at Creggan, near Athlone, will be a base for Chinese companies to promote trade and commerce with Europe and the rest of the world.
The site will employ 1,530 people after an initial boost of 1,200 construction jobs.
The development - which will also have a special Irish division to promote domestic business - aims to provide buyers, traders and manufacturers with a one-stop shop to assess products before placing bulk orders.
While discussions have taken place with some Chinese manufacturers, no companies have signed up to base themselves at the Athlone facility.
Athlone Business Park Ltd, the company behind the scheme, believes it will attract 1,750 visitors every day.
It claims it would end the need for business leaders on the US east coast to go through time-consuming visa applications and travel arrangements to get into China to see factories and products and place orders.
Phase one is made up of an oval-shaped four-storey reception building 20m (66ft) high, housing customer service facilities, meeting rooms and administrative offices, and the near 13,000 square metre China Hall for themed temporary exhibitions.
It is envisaged China Hall would be transformed every few months to showcase a different sector of Chinese manufacturing and promote associated businesses.
There will also two 30,000 square metre curved roof showcase spaces known as Mega Exhibition Halls offering companies flexible layout trading space for multiple showrooms - about 270 smaller units at a time.
The roofs will be fitted with special grass or sedum with solar panels. The hub is also designed to house nine smaller exhibition halls some of which can be sub-divided.
Concerts have been banned at the exhibition centres and it will only be allowed to operate 10am to 7pm Monday to Friday.
Developers have been told to put in place a bus service to and from Dublin Airport for visitors and another in and out of Athlone town, as well as cycle ways, for employees.
It has been speculated that when the development is complete the entire five phases of the site will have cost €1.4bn.
An Bord Pleanala attached 37 conditions, mostly technical, to the planning decision.
Barry Kehoe, director of services in Westmeath County Council’s planning division, said the authority welcomed the green light.
“We welcome the positive decision and we hope that it proceeds as soon as possible because of the economic impact in the region,” he said.
Between us selling Athlone to the Chinese and news that property is under valued according to the Central Bank, I’m only waiting for Larry Duff to call this recession over
The bus link to Athlone will be vital.
I can confirm that thefreekick.cn will be taking up a facility at this location. Expect the price of hoodiies and t-shirts to come down dramatically once I can get an import deal signed off.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0430/1224315362426.html
It actually does make the casino in Tipp look sensible.
Athlone mayor Alan Shaw (FG) said its residents were pleased with the council’s decision. He told the Christian Science Monitor in January that one reason Chinese investors chose Athlone was that, unlike other European states, “Ireland has not been preaching to the Chinese about human rights”.
*At 1 million sq m (well over 10 million sq ft), it would be “14 times the size of the Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown retail centres put together”, according to An Taisce.
*It would also have a youth hostel, cinema, arts centre, recreation and massage centres, golf course, multipurpose entertainment hall, conference facility, medical centre, fire station, primary school, kindergarten, railway station, two bus stations and a “China Tower” 90m taller than the Dublin Spire.
*Athlone restaurateur Ken So has been acting as a conduit for the Chinese investors, whose identity is unknown.
*A report by Goodbody economic consultants, commissioned by the promoters, states that a survey suggested it could attract “at least 3,000 investors” if completed successfully “and does not face excessive competition from similar facilities being built elsewhere”.
*It said the promoters will only start their main sales drive after a grant of permission and are “not yet in contact with a large group of prospective customers. Therefore,it is not possible to validate the economic sustainability of the project based on sales or communications with prospective customers.”
*In its appeal, An Taisce noted that planning permission was recently granted for a similar Chinese hub at Birkenhead, on the Wirral peninsula opposite Liverpool. “Clearly, given its proximity to port and airport links, Wirral will always enjoy overwhelming competitive advantages as compared to Creggan.”
*A letter from Simon Clear and Associates said the design team had “reviewed other potential uses for the proposed buildings in the event that they cease to be used as trading halls”, and they could be converted for “office, light manufacturing, RD and technology type” uses in a future business campus.
*Should the trading hub proceed, transport would pose the “starkest problem”, said An Taisce, with visitors arriving at Dublin airport needing “somewhere in the region of 100 coaches a day” to take them to Creggan. Laying on additional trains would be problematic as the railway is single-track from Portarlington.
I picked out some of my favourite points there.
Liverpool are building something similar, beside an Airport.
The Tower would be taller than the spire.
The lad in the local Chinese restaurant is arranging it for them.
They have no idea whether anyone has any interest in it yet.
They’ll use it as office space if it all falls apart.
Their only contact with China seems to be with the lad in the Chinese restaurant :lol:
The lads should have checked their calendars. They’re exactly a month late.
“While discussions have taken place with some Chinese manufacturers, no companies have signed up to base themselves at the Athlone facility.”
I must say this line left me a bit concerned. When is the international airport being built in Athlone to fly in US and Chinese traders though? I suppose it could work in a Hanseatic League sort of way as a place for Chinese traders to store rice or what not.
Dublin Airport is only an hour and ten minutes away. They’ll be grand. Athlone will end up being Irelands capital and Dublin will become a commuter town supplying cheap labour to our Chinese overlords in the midlands.
Chinese also trying to buy the Port in Foynes I believe. They already own significantn element of other major ports such as Rotterdam
Whos paying for this white elephant
The Chinese…a great bunch of lads!!
They’ve been planning this for at least 3 years lads. Fair play to them.
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A fella on drive time put a bit more sense to this. Apparently it will only be built if it is picked as the location after a bidding process amongst other locations around Europe.
Regarding Foynes there has been a lot of rumours of the old train line from there being re opened too to help bring the stuff from the new mines starting in Pallasgreen.
That mention brought just one image to my mind … Pallas = Mordor
I hope Irish shipping and logisitcs in general will be able to keep up with our mass export of greyhounds and horses to China.
cough
andhttp://www.irishlimousin.com/assets/images/autogen/roscrea-bulls-2012-068.jpg
I wouldn’t foist the vicious Limousin on the English, never mind the Chinese TC mate.