FCBS reveals €500m Limerick masterplan

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios has put proposals to transform a historic former industrial site in central Limerick out to public consultation.

Its Cleeves Riverside Quarter masterplan would turn the 4ha site of Cleeves condensed milk factory into a major commercial, educational and residential development valued at €500m – £440m at today’s exchange rates – by project client Limerick Twenty Thirty.

Included in the proposals are up to 500 homes, including some student accommodation; an education hub for the University of the Shannon; a new theatre and gallery; a landmark office block; and a new cycle and pedestrian bridge across the River Shannon.

The plans would also deliver a “holistic” on-site power system that would capitalise on renewable energy.

The site, on the north bank of the Shannon, includes the former Salesians Primary School and a former shipyard. Its most prominent feature is the 43m red-brick chimney of the disused condensed-milk factory.

FCBS is working with Dublin-based Bucholz McEvoy Architects, landscape architects Mitchell + Associates and Arup on the project.

FCBS partner Simon Carter said the Cleeves Riverside Quarter masterplan was a blueprint for a complementary mix of working, living and learning.

“This is an amazing site, so rich in cultural heritage, with a unique landscape for an urban centre space of this scale,” he said.

“It will be a development befitting a vibrant, modern European city, that will be built to the highest sustainability standards and will be something that Limerick and the region can be really proud of.”

Limerick Twenty Thirty said it would complete the masterplan with public feedback and expected to seek expressions of interest in the project from the market over the summer.