Strategic & Economic Development Tourism Outdoor Dining
Cork City Council’s application to F á ilte Ireland’s outdoor dining and weatherproofing infrastructure scheme was approved and a funding package of approx. €1.3 million will support the further enhancement the city’s year-round outdoor dining offering on 5 city streets – Union Quay, Pembroke S t, Caroline St, Princes’ St, and Beasley St. Applications continue to be submitted to Cork City Council’s outdoor dining grants scheme and the scheme was extended nationally to include pubs which do not serve food. The closing date for applications is 8 October 2021.
Elizabeth Fort
September saw over 3,100 visitors at Elizabeth Fort. The Fort also hosted Lee Sessions and Cork Musical Society performances as part of Culture Night 2021. The Fort’s capacity to host outdoor performances will be further enha nced following approval from the Dept of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media a grant of €250,000 to support the development of facilities to enhance the use of Elizabeth Fort as an outdoor public space. Work has commenced to develop a design brief which will be tendered shortly.
Urban Animation
In September Fá ilte Ireland confirmed funding of approiximately €670,000 under its urban animation capital investment scheme. The funding will support the development of five impactful public art works at locations across the city centre; the GPO, Exchange buildings, Carey’s Lane, Cook St. & Coal Quay and Cornmarket St., will create a trail highlighting Cork’s collective culture and heritage. The aim of this grant scheme is to help re-invigorate urban areas and increase their tourism appeal.
Urban Regeneration & Development Fund (URDF) – Call 2
Formal approval for the URDF support for the Docklands project and the Grand Parage Quarter project was received from the DHPLG in the sums of €353m and €45m . This marked the approval by DPER of the Strategic Assessment Report (Gateway 0) under the Public Spending Code of the City councils’ submissions for funding under the URDF second call. We will now proceed with the next stage which is the Preliminary Business Case Stage.
Docklands programme Manager
The Docklands Programme Manager commenced in his new role marking the commencement of the setting up of the Docklands Delivery Office, which is being supported under the URDF.
Industry Survey
An Industry survey was completed by Behaviour and Attitudes Research consultancy. The survey was undertaken with a sample of 300 No SMEs from a diverse range of sectors and with larger both indigenous FDI companies. The survey was based on industry views on the impact of Brexit and Covid 19 along with other views on how they rate Cork as a city to invest in.
Brand Benchmarking
The We are Cork brand is currently being reviewed by a subgroup of the Brand Steering group to establish the view of the key stakeholders and business on the impact of the brand with a view to establishing a programme to develop the brand into the future. A research consultancy has been appointed and are scheduling several interviews and workshops with the key stakeholders and business representative organizations and propose to report on findings in November.
Ballincollig Food units
A section 183 process has been completed in transferring the Ballincollig food units to the Northside for Business (CUE) on a long-term lease. This will facilitate the support provided by NFB to the food business currently operating from these premises to enable them to scale and prosper.
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