Holiday in a spaceship!
Center Parcs to employ 1,000 at futuristic resort
VISITORS to a €200million holiday park planned for the midlands could be forgiven for thinking they had arrived at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.
For the planned €200million Center Parcs resort in Co. Longford is based around a shiny f uturistic building l i ke the Lansdowne Road stadium.
Center Parcs yesterday unveiled a full preview of the design for the 375acre holiday spot expected to open in summer 2019 at Ballymahon.
Management confirmed the site known as Longford Forest will employ 750 during a two-year construction of 500 lodges, apartments and treehouses, swimming pools, spa, shops, restaurants and a lake.
Center Parcs chief Martin Dalby said plans would be submitted to the county council within weeks and said he was ‘hopeful’ an Irish construction firm would secure the building contract.
Speaking about the futuristic design, he said: ‘It’s almost like a spaceship has landed in the forest. It’s really exciting.’
The firms plans to take on 1,000 employees at the resort, which is built around a futuristic central hub which will contain a ‘subtropical swimming paradise’, a sports hall, cafes, bars and other facilities such as bowling.
There will even be a man-made beach and water sports.
Mr Dalby said Center Parcs was keen to incorporate Irish tastes and pastimes in the construction.
The firm initially considered incorporating a GAA pitch but it learned that too many trees would need to be felled to create one. Mr Dalby said: ‘We can’t have a full Gaelic football pitch as they are very large and you would have to remove so much of the forest to create that space.
‘What we want to do is work with the GAA to understand are there aspects of that game we can incorporate for younger kids. We’re hoping to develop something that can be a link to Gaelic football, but it won’t be a full-size pitch.’
He said Center Parcs has tried, ahead of the plans being submitted, to allay the concerns of nearby residents over traffic, the location of the entrance and access to the park.
Mr Dalby said he planned to open in time for the summer 2019 holiday season. ‘We think that would be a fantastic time to open the park, going into the summer [with] lots of guests looking for a summer holiday. That would be perfect timing.’
He said Center Parcs was committed to working with as many Irish firms as possible on the building of the resort.
‘These are big contracts so we have to make sure they are capable of delivery but we are very focused on using Irish companies,’ he said.
Center Parcs has estimated the Longford Forest will generate €32million a year for the economy.