The Abbey Quarter in Kilkenny city is taking shape

The Abbey Quarter is taking shape and looks like delivering a major economic and tourist boost for the city environs.
The new hotel, a modern library, and of course the focal point; St Francis Abbey are all progressing strongly.
And planning on the urban spine of the development; a pedestrian and cyclist dominated space (with vehicular access to the rear of Parliament Street) is at an advanced stage with work to begin in2020.
This is in stark contrast to a year ago when the project seemed stalled. Little did we know that Kilkenny County Council, IT Carlow and the others partners were doing the groundwork; laying the foundations before going public.
There is a joined up thinking to the blueprint which will provide the Abbey Quarter with the sustainability it requires to thrive.
While education and commerce are the cornerstone of the proposals, tourism will now play a strong part with the announcement last week of a new hotel there.
It will link in with the linear park planned for the former Smithwick’s brewery site. It will bring more jobs and more tourists to the city.
It will be sited close to the existing Tea House on Bateman Quay with access from the Market Yard.
It comes after a Failte Ireland report last week highlighted the need for many more hotel bedrooms in the city to cope with the growing number of tourists coming here (see page 4 for a full analysis of that report by Shauna McHugh).
In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of announcements regarding the Abbey Quarter.
More than €1.8million in funding has been granted
for a National Design Innovation Hub which will be set up in the refurbished Brewhouse.
It will allow companies to, innovate, build and test new products and services.
It’s a project involving IT Carlow, Kilkenny Industrial Development Company, Kilkenny County Council, the Design and Craft Council of Ireland and Leader while Glanbia PLC, Glanbia Ireland and Cartoon Saloon have a corporate role.
Vice President of Development and Research at IT Carlow, Declan Doyle said that the hope is that over the next three years they’ll be supporting in the region of 160 to 200 jobs which they’ll do by working on creating new business using a design-led approach.
At the of November, €4.7 million was announced to facilitate starting work on the public realm phase of the Abbey Quarter of 2019.
It will involve work on Horse Barrack Lane, the Linear Park, the Mayfair Public Realm and the Cultural Hub.
Spine
This new urban Street will be the ‘spine’ of the Abbey Quarter, linking St. Francis Bridge to the Market Yard.
The development of the urban street will be the enabler for the development of other plots within the Abbey Quarter Masterplan areas.
All this is in tandem with the new skate park which has a designated space in the plan and a draft design.
Throw in the development of the arts and the Watergate Theatre through a new entrance on to the new street space on Horse Barrack Lane along with a walkway from Parliament Street through the existing car park (to the side of it) and you have a really strong plan which is attainable.
And the development of the Linear Park along the river front will provide an area of high quality green infrastructure in the city centre connecting two existing walks to form a 17 kilometre trail.