{"id":494054,"date":"2026-05-20T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494054\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:00:19","slug":"celtic-tiger-era-shopping-centre-built-at-a-cost-of-e25m-by-mcnamara-seeking-e3m-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/494054\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Tiger-era shopping centre built at a cost of \u20ac25m by McNamara seeking \u20ac3m \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having served as an unwelcome reminder of the economic crash since it was built at an estimated cost of \u20ac25 million by developer Bernard McNamara<\/a> in 2009, Longford<\/a> Town Centre is back on the market with a guide price of \u20ac3 million through agent TWM<\/a>. Located on the site of a former meat processing facility which had been owned and operated by Larry Goodman<\/a>\u2019s ABP Food Group<\/a>, the ambitious Celtic Tiger<\/a>-era shopping centre which extends to 23,575sq m (253,680sq ft) with 344 car-parking spaces over three levels has lain entirely vacant since its completion.<\/p>\n

\"LongfordLongford Town Centre extends to 23,575sq m <\/p>\n

The centre was acquired in 2018 by its current owners, the Omniplex Cinema Group, who operate the neighbouring multiplex cinema, from receivers acting on behalf of the National Asset Management Agency<\/a> for about \u20ac1 million. The Omniplex group, which is controlled by the Anderson family, secured planning permission through another of their companies, LSCbridge Ltd, to relocate their cinema to an area inside the shopping centre complex, alongside other retail and restaurants. The Andersons\u2019 vision for the scheme was thwarted by the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 and the series of lockdowns that followed.<\/p>\n

Positioned on a 1.8-acre plot on the banks of the Camlin river in the centre of Longford town, the entire shopping centre site is zoned to \u201cprovide for the development and enhancement of town core uses including retail, residential, commercial, civic and other uses\u201d under the 2021\u20132027 Longford county development plan.<\/p>\n

\"LongfordLongford Town Centre is located on the banks of the Camlin river <\/p>\n

The subject property is located next to the former Se\u00e1n Connolly Barracks, which closed in 2009. The barracks is set for a new lease of life under Longford County Council<\/a>\u2019s Connolly Barracks Reimagined project. The plan, which is being supported by the Government\u2019s town centre first heritage revival scheme, Thrive, has entered the tender stage of a process which will see the property transformed for use by the community. Upon completion the barracks will house a new county museum, a cafe, creative studios, a podcast and recording studio, meeting rooms and a conference and performance space.<\/p>\n

Further information in relation to Longford Town Centre is available at LongfordTownCentre.com<\/a> or from Patricia Ward, who is handling the sale of the property on behalf of TWM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having served as an unwelcome reminder of the economic crash since it was built at an estimated cost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[139083,25325,8611,18,117,19,17,49021,12736,24134,3439,215450],"class_list":["post-494054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bernard-mcnamara","tag-celtic-tiger","tag-commercial-real-estate","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-larry-goodman","tag-longford","tag-national-asset-management-agency-nama","tag-retail","tag-twm"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116606798430989404","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}