A €779 million plan has been unveiled in Derry city for the construction of a new 100,000 square foot office, retail and residential centre on the banks of the River Foyle.
The Derry company behind the project, McCormick Properties, claims the proposed development will provide the infrastructure for 8,000 new jobs when completed, as well as creating 750 jobs per year for between 10 to 15 years while the project is under construction.
Details of the plan were unveiled in Derry yesterday following a meeting of Derry City Council on Wednesday, where local representatives were briefed.
McCormick proposes to build 30 modern, high-specification office blocks on both sides of the river. The development will be suspended on stilts sunken into the river bed and will run for more than a mile between Craigavon Bridge and the civic offices on Strand Road.
Around two-thirds of the project will be given over to office space, with the remaining third occupied by residential units, shops, restaurants and other leisure establishments.
It is also proposed that water sports be introduced to the area as part of the development.
Project chief executive Mr Colm Cavanagh said the proposal would not only bring employment and prosperity to Derry city but also surrounding regions such as Donegal.
"More jobs in the city will spread new wages right through the whole north-east economy," he said. "Primarily we plan to build high-quality, office-type accommodation. We are very short of this at the moment."
He said the new office space, coupled with the quality of the workforce in Derry, should be enough to convince key players in a number of industries to relocate in Derry.
According to Mr Cavanagh, the proposed project can, in part, replicate the success of a similar scheme in Belfast's Laganside, where a 700,000 sq ft project with 425 housing units has created 5,600 new jobs.
