Some interst in Trim town site with deadline looming

The closing date for expressions of interest in a three-acre town centre site in Trim being offered for sale by the town council and Meath County Council is 12 noon tomorrow (Thursday). The site, which was to form part of a the new town centre development, comes with a guide price of €2.5m and is zoned for 'new town centre activities'. It is understood that there have been three definite enquiries made with agents Lisney who are handling the sale and that these enquiries were from supermarket chains or outlets. However, it is not yet known whether these enquiries have resulted in the parties actually lodging an expression of interest in advance of tomorrow's closing date. There have also been a number of other more tentative enquiries from developers, which the agents had planned to follow up on before the closing date. The 1.28 hectares (3.16 acres) site adjoins the new Office of Public Works (OPW) headquarters in the town and is being offered for sale by joint agents Lisney and Smith Harrington. A further site of 0.94 hectares (2.34 acres) could also be potentially made available and the larger site of 5.5 acres already has planning permission for a 25,000 sq m retail and shopping centre development and 144 residential units. In April 2009, after months of speculation, it emerged that the developer who had originally bought the site was pulling out of the deal. Bennett Construction was awarded the tender to develop the new town centre site in 2003 and planning permission was granted to Shaston Contracting, a Bennett company, in October 2007 following an appeal to Bord Pleanala for an anchor supermarket, 21 retail units, a bar/café, creche, offices and 144 apartments. The anchor unit of 2,400 sq metres was to be occupied by SuperValu and the 21 retail units varied in size from 87 sq m to 217 sq m. There was also to be 607sq m of office space. In December 2008, SuperValu pulled out of the project and, some months later, it was confirmed that talks were underway to terminate the contract with Bennett Construction who no longer wanted to proceed with the project. After the town centre plans fell through, councillors agreed to begin the process of offering the site for sale again. The site was advertised in the local and national media and interested parties have until 12 noon tomorrow (Thursday) to submit their written offer for the purchase of the lands. The letters of offer must contain appropriate background information to enable the bid to be assessed and details of the principals behind the proposed purchase must be submitted, together with development experience, proposed funding for the purchase and general details of the type, quantity and mix of development proposed. Interested parties are also asked to indicate if they may be interested in negotiating a purchase of the larger land area which has planning permission. Once the closing date has passed, Lisneys will prepare a full report which will be brought before a joint meeting of Trim Town Council and Meath County Council for discussion. This meeting is expected to take place before the end of November.