PLANS have now been submitted for a multi-million pound leisure complex in Enniskillen that could potentially bring hundreds of new jobs to the county.
As revealed by the Herald earlier this year, the proposed cinema and leisure development would transform the old Unipork site off the Cornagrade and Irvinestown roads.
If the current planning application is approved the development could not only transform the currently derelict site but also the social life of the county town.
The application, which was submitted last week, is for a “mixed use retail and leisure development comprising five retail units with two garden centres, one indoor adventure play unit, hotel, cinema, bowling alley, coffee pod, and drive-thru restaurant.”
The developers previously told the Herald the cinema would have five screens, while the hotel will have 64 bedrooms. The plans also include provision for a self-service
petrol station, car parking from both the Cornagrade and Irvinestown roads, as well as landscaping, retaining walls and other works that will see the site completely revamped.
“This is a retail park that deals with a completely different sector to Enniskillen town centre,” a spokesman for the Elm Range Ltd previously told the Herald. “The type of operators that will be here onsite will not be the kind of operators that would fit the town centre.”
The spokesman said that from the outset a major retailer had expressed interest in becoming the “anchor tenant” for the development.
It is understood this retailer is home and garden store The Range.
A public consultation on the plans opened in Enniskillen in March, and while no submissions either in support or against the plans have been registered on the planning application website yet, when the development was first announced Herald readers were overwhelmingly in support of the plans. Many said a development of this type was “long overdue” in Enniskillen.
However, a group of business representatives have expressed their opposition to the development, citing fears it could seriously damage trading in the town centre. Earlier this year members of the Enniskillen Business Partnership voted to object to the plans.
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