NAAS, 3 July 2001: by Brian Byrne. Members of Naas UDC will be voting this evening on a proposal to sell to Newbridge-based developer Tom Treacy the authority's Sallins Road car park (above) for £500,000. The property has been independently valued at £1.5m, but the councillors are being asked to take into consideration that Mr Treacy has to build a link road on his property between the Sallins Road and Dublin Road as part of his overall development, at a cost of £500,000.
Part of Mr Treacy's development will provide a multi-storey car park with a capacity of 670 cars. Under the terms negotiated with the developer, the £500,000 will be paid over 10 years, at an interest rate of 6% per annum. Given that it is Government economic practice to discount the real value of money by 5% per annum, this effectively gives the developer a 1% interest rate. The deal is being recommended by town officials Tommy Skehan and Declan Kirrane on the grounds of 'significant benefits' accruing to the town from the development. These include an estimated £70,000-£100,000 annually in extra rates.
In the course of negotiations on the price to be paid for the UDC car park, Mr Treacy had suggested that it be transferred to him 'for a nominal sum' because of such benefits.
Although the vote is third item on the originally published agenda, it is quite possible that it could actually be taken before the AGM of the UDC, scheduled for 8pm this evening. This would give the incoming chairman 'a clean slate' in terms of what has been a somewhat contentious issue since the UDC gave planning permission last June for Mr Treacy's development.
At that time, the project mooted the provision of a total of 565 car spaces, but it now appears this figure has been expanded by around 100 more spaces. The UDC estimates that the current plans will provide 230 extra car parking spaces to Naas after allocation of spaces required for the individual components of the retail/office development. It is not clear whether this calculation takes account of the loss of 119 spaces from the original car park, and the reduction on on-street parking which will result from the planned pedestrianisation of the Poplar Square area.
In June of last year, KNN calculated from figures then available that there would only be a net gain of 57 extra spaces. Naas will also face a parking crisis during the construction of the project, though Mr Treacy has undertaken to complete the multi-story car park in the first phase of his development.
Meanwhile, the UDC says it would not be in a position to build or operate a similar multi-storey car park by itself, suggesting the £5 million capital cost and operating costs would leave the authority with a £40,000-a-year annual deficit for 20 years. On the other hand, accountants for Mr Treacy have estimated that the car park will be commercially viable after only five years of operation.
The UDC recently borrowed £2.5 million for the purchase of Hederman's Yard (above) and Tutty's shoe factory to use as a temporary car park. Up to a further £1m will need to be spent to make the property suitable for this purpose. There are unconfirmed reports that Mr Treacy has agreed to pay £25,000 towards these costs in return for the use of the property as the alternative car parking he is required to provide while building the multi-storey.
A similar multi-storey project for the UCD's main Corban's Lane car park (above) has been under discussion with private developers for several years. It is currently thought to be at the stage of drawing up contracts.
Relevant previous stories:
UDC selloff could forfeit Naas £466K+ annually;
Paid parking in Naas again deferred;
Fair Green parking plan would be 'act of vandalism';
©2001brianbyrne/knn