Members of Cork City Council voted last night to back plans to locate a new €33 million events centre at the Docklands site that currently hosts the annual Live at the Marquee concert series.
In April of this year, city manager Joe Gavin presented a report to the council on an initiative to attract the private sector to provide a conference and event centre in Cork.
The absence of such a venue has been seen as an impediment to business tourism in the city.
The business sector has repeatedly called for the provision of a venue capable of accommodating concerts with audiences of up to 6,000 and conferences of 2,000 delegates.
In the absence of private sector interest in building a large-scale indoor event centre in Cork in the immediate future, the council decided in April to intervene and to offer to meet 25 per cent of the cost of providing such a centre. Proposals were invited to provide a suitable site and design, build, fund and manage a large-scale event centre, with the council offering to meet 25 per cent of the capital cost to a maximum of €12 million.
Following this invitation, submissions were received from Hyde Partnership for Carrigrohane Road, Ascon for Black Ash, Howard Holdings for the Docklands and Medaza for the Showgrounds.
Mr Gavin said yesterday evening that the submissions were all examined and an assessment board recommended that the best proposal was the one submitted by Howard Holdings.
"This proposal is for the provision of a state-of-the-art conference and event centre in the heart of the Docklands on the site which has been used for the Live at the Marquee festival of concerts for the past two years. It will be an architecturally designed, glass-fronted, three-storey building overlooking a public plaza which will open to the river Lee."
If the centre receives planning permission, it will be able to accommodate up to 6,000 people for concerts, 2,000 for conferences and crowds ranging from 400 to 1,500 for smaller events.
The facility will be within 20 minutes of the city centre by foot and the proposed public transport infrastructure planned for the Docklands will also facilitate access to the facility.