An unusual development of a tourist village and a shopping and residential complex in Tralee, Co Kerry, launched yesterday by Dunloe Ewart and the local urban council will have an end value of £30 million.

The 18-acre site will also include a multi-purpose arena to be developed by Tralee Urban District Council. Work has already begun on the The Fels Point development, which will take between three and five years to complete. Details of the scheme were given at a reception in Tralee by Cllr Norma Foley, Cathaoirleach of the UDC, and Noel Smyth, chairman of Dunloe Ewart. The function was also attended by the US Ambassador, Michael J. Sullivan.

A few years ago, Dunloe Ewart acquired the site, centrally located on Dan Spring Road and close to the Aquadome Water World Centre, from Tralee UDC. The council retained 3.5 acres for its multipurpose arena. The planned arena will be used for concerts and sporting events and may even include a venue which will in time replace the Dome for the town's annual Rose of Tralee festival.

The commercial element of the overall scheme will include a 110-bedroom hotel, an apart-hotel with 48 two-bedroom units, 36 two-bedroom apartments and a filling station with retail units. A restaurant/pub/nightclub on the site will cover 10,000 sq ft and a drive-through restaurant is also planned. The tourist village will have an anchor unit of 16,000 sq ft and a shopping mall with 10 outlets. The apartments, retail element of the complex and the restaurant/pub will qualify for tax breaks.

Joint selling agents are Gunne Commercial and Sherry FitzGerald O'Connell of Tralee. Cormac Kennedy of Gunne says though there is a lot of interest and discussions are ongoing, it is expected that the hotel, drive-through restaurant, filling station, apart-hotel and apartments, will all be sold rather than leased.

Mr Smyth said Fels Point would generate some 300 jobs during construction and between 400 and 500 jobs on completion. The development, he said, would "complement the already extensive infrastructure for both the tourism and domestic markets" and benefit the south-west generally. The location, on one of the main roads between Dingle and Killarney, has the River Lee as its southern boundary and landscaping will include a riverside walk. Fels Point gets its name from the Baltimore port near Boston, in the US where the Famine ship, the Jeannie Johnston, landed hundreds of Irish emigrants.