High hopes for Mayo county town's future and imminent investments

by Dr. Richard Martin

I’m a regular in Caroline’s in the Market Square. I'm in there most days around lunch time.

I meet Cyril Burke, his brother Paddy, Willie Joe, Mick Byrne and others in there pretty frequently. The place has a nice family vibe, all the regulars know each other. Nice food. Nice people. Good conversation.

One afternoon I bumped into Cyril Burke, and we got talking about the Imperial Hotel. I asked him would we meet and have a chat about the current state of play. He agreed and we met up in the TF on a Saturday afternoon.

Richard: Imperial Hotel. What's the state of play? Has the sale gone through?

Cyril: It's in the process. Basically, it was a great asset at the time when it was a hotel. It was very popular as a restaurant. And now that the courthouse has been developed into four courts, I suspect it'll be a better dimension there.

And, you know, there's a shortage in the town of a facility for communions and confirmations and small family weddings or events and stuff like that. I think it'd be an ideal location for a hotel.

Richard: So, you always believed it should be a hotel instead of a public building?

Cyril: Absolutely. It's surrounded by public buildings, as it is. I think there's enough there.

I mean, there are councillors that feel that a civic office for the Castlebar Municipal District should be a priority.

I don't particularly feel it should be a priority, because they can go into Marsh House, once the Educate Together Primary School have a new building.

And I don't think it's something that's urgent. What I do think is the revival of the town is much more urgent. And that's why I always felt getting the Imperial up and running again was key.

Richard: The Imperial was bought by Mayo County Council in 2011 and has been in a state of disrepair and decay ever since. How did it take so long to be sold?

Cyril: There was a hotel chain that entered talks with the local authority about three to four years ago about buying it off them. The council engaged with them on it.

At the time the management of the council didn't get into the nitty-gritty of that with the members, other than to say that there was an interested party. They never told us who they were.

It was the council before this one. And we all felt, well, look, that's good. We'll let that run its course. And sure, it'll have to come before us anyway. And we'll see the details.

So, then that collapsed. The talks collapsed. They pulled out and it was last chance saloon.

Richard: Why did they pull out?

Cyril: They felt it wasn't feasible as a boutique hotel; I think that was the key thing.

I proposed getting expressions of interest for a hotel to the council before they'd engage further in developing the project where there was going to be an enterprise hub in it.

The ATU were going to be involved. And there was another body. There were three bodies to be involved in it including the council. Now, it's hard enough to get a project across the line solely being a council project.

But if you have two other bodies, it's a nightmare altogether – nothing will get done.

I contacted the chief executive, and he advised me that if I wanted to pursue this, that I should put down a motion for an expression of interest. So, I did.

Richard: I think it’s fair to say that you've been the driver for the hotel. Al McDonald and Ger Deere both want a hotel. Martin McLoughlin was certainly supportive of it. But you were the main driver. You were pushing it.

Cyril: I was, particularly in this last phase, because it was our only chance before they went fully engaged on the other route.

I was keen to exhaust all options. All options for a hotel. For me that building must be restored to its former glory.

The council put forward an expression of interest. I believe that there were four interested parties and when the council engaged with them, they were whittled down to two.

Only one was a boutique hotel. The other one, I think, was interested in taking on the building, leasing it back to the council and that wasn't in the interest of the officials.

Richard: No, no, no, no.

Cyril: The council engaged further then with the people involved. The investment partnership headed by P.J. Staide and Trish Egan have a solid background of developing boutique hotels like these.

They own the Cill Aodáin Hotel in Kiltimagh and they own the Gateway Hotel in Swinford. They're obviously very successful and they know what they're doing.

Richard: The big issue that I have had... has someone in the council looked... You know, done a feasibility study? How much is it going to cost to renovate?

Cyril: I understand that they have. A business and cost plan has been put forward and the relevant people in the council have seen it. This investment partnership is just perfect for the job. Perfect for that job. It wouldn't work for a chain because it would cost too much. The return wouldn't be there. But I see that they can make it work.

Richard: And I suppose you just must trust them then.

Cyril: Well, that's it. I mean, why would he go on a wild goose chase otherwise? I mean, they have a proven track record, and they’re really interested.

Richard: The UDRF funding, there was €8.5 million allocated to the Imperial for an enterprise hub. That can be moved elsewhere now. Where would you like that to go?

Cyril: Well, the chief executive has already earmarked Block A and B in the military barracks for that €8.5 million.

Richard: UDRF funding?

Cyril: Yeah. And that's going to be the enterprise hub.

Richard: In the barracks?

Cyril: Yeah. And that's perfect. Because I think, with the enterprise centre located so close to the CCFE, it's even better than if it was going to be in the Imperial.

It's going to be right beside the CCFE There's an enterprise hub and then there's the CCFE together. They're all on the same campus and it gets the barracks moving.

Plus, as well as that, the design that they're talking about will take down a good chunk of the wall of Castle Street and you're going to have steps all the way from the Castle Street carpark up to the military barracks. It's going to all become the one area. It's going to be brilliant.

Now the campus itself, I mean, when they launched it and they announced it, which was four years ago, it was €27 million. It's probably going to end up at €35 million which is separate from the UDRF funding.

We’re looking at roughly €40 million being spent in the town barracks in the years ahead and that’s not including the Imperial renovations.

Richard: Do you feel the municipal districts work better in other districts than in Castlebar?

Cyril: Not necessarily. I think that some people play politics.

Certain amounts of people, members, play politics in most of the districts. And they play it at council level as well.

In fairness to Phil Hogan, when he developed the municipal districts, the idea was that the district, each district, would develop and would have enough of power and funding from rates and stuff to develop our districts. And that wasn't just the towns.

And that means for the likes of Balla, Belcarra and Ballyvary, there's been an awful lot more money spent there now.

All these places that develop playgrounds. And that's all matching funding, some from the Department of Sport, but the rest in from the municipal district.

And that meant rate payers' money. It was the rate payers of those areas that were coming into the town. And paying parking charges and all that.

Richard: Okay, so do you agree with the abolition of town councils?

Cyril: I believe that if the members forgot about the fact that we had town councils and got on with the job of working with the new municipal districts, we could be even more successful than the town councils were. I believe that.

Richard: Former town councillors like Peter Flynn or Micheal Kilcoyne or whoever would say planning and getting projects moving in the town was a lot easier when there were town councils. You don't believe that?

Cyril: It's a myth. It's a myth. Yeah. The only difference, the only difference I see, is that the funding is divided more across the municipal district.

Richard: So, you see it as a fairer system?

Cyril: Absolutely. I mean, Balla is a prime example of how it was developed and Balla going well is good for Castlebar. Because Castlebar is still the shopping destination. And there have been a lot of good projects in that, but central government are giving more money now. You can see it.

We just talked about the 50 million that's going to be spent in Castlebar. But the smaller funding that we take from the ratepayers and our GMA funding, we're spreading that out to the GAA, to the soccer clubs, all the sports clubs around the county. We help them. And you can see it in every parish and community. And you can see it how the communities are much more involved.

That's our role, to support them.

The other big thing, and it's a huge thing now, I think, and I hope that we can all be on the same page here, is the northern ring road for the town.

I had a lot of issues with the planners when we were redoing the town plan.

Richard: Why?

Cyril: I felt that there was too much land being zoned on the Rathbawn road side of the town. And you go to Breaffy Road and there's any amount of land out there not zoned.

All the industries are out there. The people are travelling now from the Rathbawn Road, Knights Park, Lakeview. All those estates. There's a bottleneck at the top of Gallows Hill.

And they all must come back through that road. They can't get any other way into the town.

I am pushing management for a short term solution at Gallows Hill until we get a long term solution.

Then you have all the Newport Road estates like Dunbeg and Carrabeg, which use the Newport Road. So those two roads in the morning and at school time are chock-a-block.

Richard: You want a ring road going from where to where?

Cyril: Well, it'll have to go around the northern end. To link up with the Turlough Road. Continue that right around to the west.

Create a full ring around the town is what really needs to be done at the end of the day.

And I think, long term, we shouldn't be thinking short term, we should be going long term with the northern route, going from the Westport Road, across the Newport Road, and right around to the Turlough Road. And that's complete. That'll complete the town.

Also, I have asked management to arrange consultations in relation to the Main Street. We have to be creative and invest in it to bring it back and make it a more attractive space.

That’s Cyril. No half measures. Buckets of energy. Brimming with ideas.

I found the conversation refreshing, to be honest. No populist guff, just a local politician who wants to make things happen in the town.

I’m excited about the Imperial. At this point, all of us just want to see something happen. Looking at a gloomy, unhappy, decrepit, decaying building in the heart of our town is depressing.

Talking to Cyril it feels like this town is on the cusp of major change. Major money is going to be spent in the town. The Imperial and barracks will be totally revamped.

Good things come to those who wait.