McKillen’s Magheramore Beach plan will involve investment of €40m – report

Plans by developer Paddy McKillen Jnr for a holiday resort and surf school on the clifftop lands at Magheramore Beach in Co Wicklow will involve investment of €40 million, an economic and financial evaluation of the project drawn up by economist Jim Power states.

Paddy McKillen Jnr and Matthew Ryan, who head the Press-Up Hospitality Group, are behind applicant firm Creatively Pacific Ltd, which has lodged plans with Wicklow County Council for the development.

Mr Power’s evaluation states that once operational after an 18-month construction phase, the project will employ 160 people.

The project “involves a significant capital investment of €40 million”, Mr Power’s report states, with the proposed development consisting of a new two-storey, over lower ground level building containing a gym, sauna, cinema and outdoor pool reception, bar and restaurant, washrooms and outdoor terrace at ground floor. It will also involve construction of a surf school building and 48 “high-quality accommodation pods”.

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Mr Power estimates that over a full year the 48 two-person pods would equate to 35,040 bed nights. The economic evaluation states that the project “would generate €2.8 million in extra tourism revenues in the area”. The figure in the report assumes full occupancy across 365 days.

“The project vision is to create a beautiful, world class destination for people to enjoy within a wonderful setting,” a planning report lodged by Manahan Planners says. It says the proposal will not alter the existing public access to the beach. “It will remain as today on foot by way of the existing nuns’ walkway,” the report says.

The proposed development “would provide a new type of sustainable tourist accommodation facility for Wicklow county and be a source of long-term local employment, which will have a positive long-term economic and social impact on the local and regional area”, the Manahan report says.

The application has attracted one objection to date from a Michelle Doyle who queries how Mr McKillen can “ensure that this is a development which enriches the identity of Co Wicklow and is not another ‘from the box’ homogenous and gentrifying business like his Sophies, Dean Hotel, Elephant & Castle, Stella Cinema or Wow Burger”?

Describing what is planned as an “elite boutique hotel”, the Brittas Bay local said: “No matter what county you are in, the reach of Press Up and the blanket it smothers local culture in is felt.”