Cashflow Problems Stall Carrick Shopping Centre

CONSTRUCTION work on a €20m shopping centre and housing development on the Old Ardee Road in Carrickmacross has ground to a halt due to cashflow problems.

In recent days all machinery and plant with the exception of two large cranes on the McEnaney Construction project a short distance from Carrickmacross town centre have been removed. On completion the project was expected to create employment for hundreds of people in the Carrickmacross area. Some 30 construction staff had been employed on the site.

McEnaney Construction Director, Sean McEnaney, confirmed exclusively to the Monaghan Post that a problem does currently exist.

“There are a number of cashflow problems at the moment which we are attempting to address. We are trying to rectify the situation as quick as we can so that the Carrick job can be up an running again.”

However, it is not known when work will re-commence on the massive construction project.

Mr McEnaney also confirmed that his firm is currently engaged in a “restructuring process”.

This newspaper understands that McEnaney Construction may currently be seeking a buyer for either the unfinished Carrickmacross site or for another such site in Dundalk where the firm is currently building industrial warehousing and offices on a huge 92 acre site on the Armagh Road.

Mr McEneaney refused to comment on any site sale negotiations. “This is a sensitive issue so I can’t say anything on that.”

Only in recent months McEneaney Developments submitted a revised plan to Carrickmacross Town Council after the company managed to acquire a number of additional properties adjacent to its original Ardee Road site. Phase one of the Carrick project consisting of 19 townhouses and 14 apartments was expected to be completed in July or August of this year.

Phase Two - a three storey shopping complex encompassing 17,470 square metres was expected to completed by the end of 2008. This shopping centre is proposed to include 25 shop units. It was planned that the shopping centre complex would also include offices, a medical centre and a restaurant as well as parking facilities for several hundred cars.