ilex - Ilex unveils draft masterplan for Fort George

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2007 Press Releases

Ilex unveils draft masterplan for Fort George

06 Dec 2007

Urban regeneration company Ilex today unveiled its draft Masterplan for Fort George. It is proposed that the former military base should become a mixed use site to include office accommodation, education, research, residential, retail and leisure.

Speaking at the event Chief Executive of Ilex, Bill Kirk set the context for the document and explained:
“The draft Masterplan for Fort George builds on a number of strategic documents previously produced by a range of stakeholders. It is also the result of preliminary consultation with Planning Service, Roads Service, Neighbourhood Renewal Groups, and politicians. We now enter the next stage of wider consultation and between now and February 8th will hold public meetings, give presentations and meet all interested parties to ensure the Fort George Masterplan maximises the potential of the site to the benefit of the city”.

Brenda Fraser, Ilex’s Director of Development, gave a presentation of the draft Masterplan and commented:
“The vision for the site, in line with the Ilex Regeneration Plan, is for a prestige technology and/or knowledge intensive park including a mix of offices, residential, and leisure uses. Extensive pedestrian priority, high quality public realm throughout the site with lively ground floor uses such as restaurants and cafes will create a destination space for use by all and mix an urban parkland with more traditional facilities such as a children’s play park and skateboarding park. The height and quality of the buildings will provide an innovative, contemporary 21st century knowledge quarter for the city, supplementing and complementing the more traditional offer available in the historic core of the city”.

Outlining the draft Masterplan, Chairman of Ilex, Sir Roy McNulty said:
“As a former shipyard established in the 1850s – and a site employing some 2600 by 1923 – Fort George played an important part in the city’s former economy. The proposed re-development of the site means that, once again, Fort George will secure significant levels of investment and employment almost double that enjoyed in its heyday”

The draft Masterplan now goes out to public consultation until February 8th. Public meetings will be held on January 8th and 15th in the University of Ulster at Magee and on January 9th in St Columb’s Park House, Waterside, details to be advertised in the local papers in early January.

The draft Fort George Masterplan is available on the Ilex website www.ilex-urc.com

For further information contact Mo Durkan, tel. 028 712 69226 or 07917 544297.

EDITOR’S NOTES

Northern Ireland’s only Urban Regeneration Company Ilex was set up in 2003 by the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) and the Department for Social Development (DSD) to plan, develop and sustain the economic, physical and social regeneration of the Derry City Council area.
Ilex’s strategic objectives are:

To create and promote the coordinated regeneration of the Derry City Council area generally and to facilitate its implementation in cooperation with DSD, other relevant government departments, Derry City Council, the private sector and other interested parties; and