€7.7m Kinnegad enterprise hub plan among major rural regeneration applications

Westmeath County Council have launched an application for rural regeneration funding for the old schoolmaster’s house in Kinnegad. They have also put in an application for funding for projects in Castlepollard. The projects were submitted in the last week.

Cllr Denis Leonard, who has described the Kinnegad application as “exciting”, revealed that the application for the old schoolmaster’s house – located adjacent to the town’s recently-opened library, would transform the building into a major enterprise and co-working hub.

The total estimated cost of the project comes to €7.7 million and the hope is that the council might receive €6.2 million from the Rural Regeneration Development Fund.

The match funding element requirement is €1.5 million.

The council carried out a survey in Kinnegad on levels of interest in a co-working hub and enterprise innovation. It emerged that there was interest in both enterprise units and in a co-working hub which enables people who are allowed to work remotely from their offices work in a shared space, which in turn means they don’t have to surrender room in their own house for work purposes.

Cllr Leonard said the project would represent a major boost for Kinnegad, which has experienced significant population growth but where many residents continue to commute to Dublin for work.

“Having a business centre here, which creates more local businesses, allows more people to work in this area,” he said. “And secondly, people who might work other places can actually have a co-working place to work remotely as well.”

He said the proposal was the culmination of efforts over a number of years to bring the building back into productive use.

Planning for the project has already been completed and the council is expected to learn before the end of the year whether the funding application has been successful.

The second application submitted by the council is for a public realm project in Castlepollard, with the aim of connecting the town’s new park with the main streets and improving the area around the square.

An application by Atlantic Enterprises for a development comprising almost 6,000 square metres of warehouse/light industrial space on a four-acre site beside the M4 in Kinnegad is expected to be resubmitted to the council following amendments.