Badly needed GP service coming to north Navan
A NEW GP surgery and pharmacy are due to open in north Navan later this year in a new medical centre building that is currently under construction in the Cluain Adain development.
Newkey Homes purchased the commercial site in Cluain Adain on the Clonmagadden Road and managing director, Ronan O'Reilly, a native of Gibbstown, has outlined his plans for the site which also include a 10,000 sq ft supermarket that will be occupied by Tesco.
The commercial site is located to the left of the entrance to Cluain Adain as you drive in to the estate, and Ronan said he expects that construction on the supermarket will be completed in June or July and the building will then be handed over to Tesco to complete their internal fit out. He anticipates that the supermarket should be open around September time.
The medical centre building is being leased to McCarton's Pharmacy and Ronan said there will be a pharmacy on the ground floor along with another unit, most likely a hair salon, with two local GPs to open separate practices on the first floor of the building.
The plans also include 90 car parking spaces. There was already planning for the supermarket when Newkey Homes purchased the site and Ronan explained they went in for planning for the medical centre building to add value to the site and bring more services, including a GP service.
As well as building houses, Ronan says it is important to also to provide local services whether that is a creche, or office or retail space and he is delighted that two local doctors are going to establish new businesses at the location.
For people moving into an area, he said it is "next to impossible" to get a GP service. "These people are here to live, they are spending their money and we need to provide these facilities for everyone."
Ronan is a son of Phil O'Reilly of Shannon Homes and was bitten by the development bug at an early age having been at showhouse launches with his dad.
Rather than go into his father's business, he said it was important to him that he got his own education. He went to Dubai when he was 21 working for a number of years with the Mace Group there and then worked on another project with the company on the Caribbean island of Nassau before returning to Ireland and setting up his own business, Newkey.
"I went from one of the largest private building projects in the world to two houses in Colpe," recalled Ronan who set up his own business just over a decade ago.
Among the projects his company have been involved in are Milteog in Trim, Auburn Avenue beside Grange Rath, and St Werburgh’s in Swords.
His move into commercial came with his Donacarney Village Square venture which is a mix of residential and commercial and includes a neighbourhood centre in similar vane to Cluain Adain.
The first phase is complete and includes 18 apartments, a Spar, medical centre and Macari take away with the second phase recently commencing construction to include a farm to fork restaurant, apartments, a pharmacy, hair salon and barbers.
After working on the Donacarney project he found it to be relatively straightforward and started looking at other sites where he could do similar neighbourhood centres with a supermarket and medical centre and was the successful bidder for the Cluain Adain commercial site.
Cluain Adain houses are being developed by Glenveagh Homes which is planning to build 460 homes. Around half of them have been completed to date. Plans for a new secondary school in the area to serve north Navan are in the initial stages with a site identified close to Scoil Naomh Eoin.