CONSTRUCTION work begins this week on an £18 million commercial and residential complex in the centre of Swords, Co Dublin. The scheme will include a 65-bedroom apart-hotel, for which planning permission has been sought.

The development is to be carried out by Gerry Gannon on a three-acre site fronting on to Main Street and the Malahide Road. He paid £1.3 million for the site which was originally earmarked for a 120-bedroom hotel. The revised scheme will have 32,000 square feet of units shops on two levels, one fronting on to Main Street and the other on to Malahide Road. A new street is to be developed from Main Street to the site of Fingal.

County Council's new headquarters, which are to be built later this year. The town centre scheme will include 25,000 square feet of offices, 50 apartments and townhouses and an underground 360-space car-park on two levels.

Meanwhile, An Bord Pleanala is shortly to consider an appeal against Fingal County Council's decision to grant planning permission for a major commercial complex in Swords to cater for the fast growing population. The £100 million scheme will include a shopping centre with 220,000 square feet, bar, restaurants, offices, multiplex cinema and a multi-storey car-park. Flynn and O'Flaherty Properties is handling the development, which will occupy a 20-acre site between Main Street and the Swords by-pass.