Ambitious plans for the banks of the Blackwater

ANN CASEY AND NOELLE FINEGAN
The first application for a major development along Navan’s Blackwater riverbank, which could see the transformation of ‘The Mollies’ has been lodged with Meath County Council.
Plans for a 186-bedroom care centre  and 40 apartments on the site of Elliot’s Mill are currently being considered by the Council.
Meanwhile, earlier this year the Meath Chronicle revealed plans for a major financial services centre - the biggest outside Dublin - on the opposite riverbank.
Navan native, Noel Moran is the man behind the project which could eventually employ up to 800 highly-qualified employees in the financial services industry. 
Both proposals are expected to breathe new life into the now derelict area and transform the areas north and south of the river into thriving town centre quarters.
There had been previous applications for a variety of different developments along the riverbanks during the boom era, including one for a massive hotel and leisure centre, but these plans are no longer live.

Meath County Council hopes to see a masterplan put in place for the area north of the River Blackwater in the area known as ‘The Mollies.’
The area stretches from the current apartment buildings at Poolboy Bridge at the foot of Flower Hill to lands adjacent to Blackwater Park.
The proposed site for Financial Services Centre would be across the river from this area, on the site of the old British military barracks and De La Salle School off the Inner Relief Road. Mr Moran is believed to have purchased the site on the Inner Relief Road, which saw service as a barracks, school and textile factory.
If the proposal goes ahead, Meath County Council is expected to sell the adjacent Kells Road car park for use in the project and provide an alternative car park on the other side of the bridge.
The land between the new bridge across from the fire staton and the Balmoral Estate on the south side of the river is owned by Meath County Council, apart from a small portion occupied by the former Spicer’s Mill, a listed building.
On the disposal of the existing car park to Mr Moran, the council plans to use lands on this tract to provide an alternative car park. There are also plans to eventually provide a footbridge giving access to Blackwater Park from the south side of the town.
While plans for the Financial Services Centre are still under discussion and planning permission has not yet been sought, a formal application is expected next year.
However, plans for the care centre at Elliot’s Mill are at a more advanced stage.  Elliot’s Mill Care Centre Limited has sought permission for the demolition of the derelict mill building, which is now in ruins, and the construction of a 186-bedroom care centre in a part six, part eight and part nine-storey building .

The proposed care centre building is to be laid out in three-wings around a central full height atrium with access to a hard landscaped river front plaza which formed the original footprint of Elliot’s Mill.
The plans also include 40 apartments in a part four/part five-storey block with basement parking  and a landscaped riverside park connecting both buildings. 
Elliott’s Sawmills on the Blackwater closed in 1999 bringing to an end centuries of milling on the site. 
According to Navan Historical Society, the buildings, now in ruins, date back to 1851, when William Morgan established a mill to provide flour for his bakery in Watergate Street.
It was later run as a saw mills and then taken over by Joshua Elliot.
 The proposals for the Financial Services Centre could see Mr Moran’s company become Navan’s biggest employer - bigger than Tara Mines. The centre itself would eventually employ up to 800 highly-qualified employees in the financial services industry.  

In addition it would open up the Blackwater river to the public and greatly enhance the river as a natural resource in the centre of Navan. 
Mr Moran’s business in Navan had commenced in Market Square with 15 employees. Shortly afterwards the business moved to the IDA park where he and his wife now employ close to 100  people, making PFS a large employer in Navan.
Cllr Joe Reilly said it was very important that a Masterplan is put in place for the develoopment of the area and the provision of a footbridge over the Blackwater to link with the park was crucial.
"We will have to be sensitive of issues such as fishing and flora and fauna, but this can be done," he said.
See more on this at meathchronicle.ie