DevelopmentSite: Kilcock is a town ripe for redevelopment and recent rezonings there should mean it experiences new housing and leisure schemes, reports Jack Fagan

The Co Kildare town of Kilcock, a bypass victim of the N4, could finally be dragged into the 21st century now that additional land has been rezoned for housing.

Though much of the centre of the town is in ruin and ripe for redevelopment, housebuilders are already turning their attention to the town because of its good range of facilities and its proximity to Dublin city.

The planned extension of the M4 motorway to Kinnegad will speed up traffic to and from Dublin city centre and Kilcock is also served by the Arrow rail service.

Joint agents Hamilton Osborne King and Coonan Auctioneers of Maynooth are quoting a guide price of €15 million for a mixed use development site of 31 acres (12.5 hectares) that was recently rezoned in the Kilcock Environs Plan 2001.

About 24 acres of the site has been designated for a residential scheme with the remaining balance reserved for educational and recreational uses.

The site has frontage on to both the Dublin Road and the Dunboyne Road and could accommodate over 300 residential units, according to the joint agents.

The land is owned by the Monaghan family who run a mens' clothing shop at Hibernian Way off Dawson Street.

Kilcock recently received a major boost when it was announced that Musgraves is to open a national distribution centre in the town to employ about 400 people.

The area is also conveniently located within easy commuting distance of both the large Intel and Hewlett Packard manufacturing plants.