Euro/China trading hub Athlone - update?

anishboi

Anyone remember this?

Is the plan still going ahead?

Up until the summer of last year there was still a lot of talk about a mammoth multi-million euro trading hub in Athlone for Chinese and European companies to trade with each other - what was set to be the biggest hub in Europe.

But now in 2014, is the plan still going ahead, or was it just pie in the sky? The official website for the development has been taken down and there are no recent news articles online regarding it. Surely a plan this big would take funding that would be impossible to find in the current economic situation?

I'm not from Athlone, so I won't know as much local talk about it, can anyone fill me in? Has anyone driven past the proposed site of the development? Is anything even slightly happening there??

BoB_BoT

Absolute pie in the sky. It's amazing the kind of "backing" you get with a scale model.

anishboi

BoB_BoT wrote: »

Absolute pie in the sky. It's amazing the kind of "backing" you get with a scale model.

Pity. Would have been nice for a small town like Athlone to attract such a huge amount of worldwide attention.

I'm a big advocate of making Athlone Ireland's next big city, perfect location and abundance of free space.

Saint_Mel

BoB_BoT wrote: »

Absolute pie in the sky. It's amazing the kind of "backing" you get with a scale model.

What is this?? A trading hub for ants!!! It has to be at least 3 times this size!

BoB_BoT

Saint_Mel wrote: »

What is this?? A trading hub for ants!!! It has to be at least 3 times this size!

You won't be laughing when we have a state of the art trading hub for our evil ant overlords.

On a more serious note, Athlone has a lot to be improved upon before we could be considered a city. We'd need a hospital to start with, a nearby airport would be useful, a development plan for the town that isn't based upon hope of big companies coming here and something that was recently removed from the town, a council. So yeah, we're a long long way off being a city. Oh, also population and housing to support said population.

walrusgumble

BoB_BoT wrote: »

You won't be laughing when we have a state of the art trading hub for our evil ant overlords.

On a more serious note, Athlone has a lot to be improved upon before we could be considered a city. We'd need a hospital to start with, a nearby airport would be useful, a development plan for the town that isn't based upon hope of big companies coming here and something that was recently removed from the town, a council. So yeah, we're a long long way off being a city. Oh, also population and housing to support said population.

Have not had my ear to the ground lately, but, is Athlone to loose it's town council?

Surely they don't expect our glorious town to be expected to share power or be dictated by and with the plebs of ki... like Mullingar?

So what now? A county council is all we have left? Surely we have some kind of borough/ community council etc?

South Westmeath, revolves around Athlone. Athlone and its hinterland is the only show on the road in the entire county of Westmeath and South Roscommon. It should not and can not be dictated to or expect to share power with other areas.

What happens to the Town Centre Building? (obviously better things in its place)

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Pity to see this seems to have lost it's head of steam. Would have been a massive boost for Athlone and really put it on the map as a nationally important urban centre, and probably would have boosted the population by c. 50% in the medium term.

As it stands, the town is a long way from city status all right, that 'Gateway' guff never really materialised properly wither. The fact remains that the East and South of the country are where its at. Dundalk and Drogheda are the only two towns that have a real claim to city status as it stands in my opinion.

anishboi

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Pity to see this seems to have lost it's head of steam. Would have been a massive boost for Athlone and really put it on the map as a nationally important urban centre, and probably would have boosted the population by c. 50% in the medium term.

As it stands, the town is a long way from city status all right, that 'Gateway' guff never really materialised properly wither. The fact remains that the East and South of the country are where its at. Dundalk and Drogheda are the only two towns that have a real claim to city status as it stands in my opinion.

I'd probably give it to Tralee instead of drogheda, too close to Dublin. Same reason why Tallaght can't get city status.

walrusgumble

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

Pity to see this seems to have lost it's head of steam. Would have been a massive boost for Athlone and really put it on the map as a nationally important urban centre, and probably would have boosted the population by c. 50% in the medium term.

As it stands, the town is a long way from city status all right, that 'Gateway' guff never really materialised properly wither. The fact remains that the East and South of the country are where its at. Dundalk and Drogheda are the only two towns that have a real claim to city status as it stands in my opinion.

Dude, take away the lovely Salthill n Ballybrit Racecourse, Galway City aint all that!

Sod looking for city status., bless Sligo Towns cotton socks. Just improve the town. We can be the best little town in the whest (well front door to the west)

There was no guarantee that this hub would amount to much. Can't trust the Chinese economy, need the other Asian groups andAussies to come on in. I know is small time, but look how empty the IDA buildings in the Garrycastle area are (or were,its being a long time so maybe I'm wrong)

0958

The project is called "Shanghai-on-Shannon"
As a Chinese student, I've been keeping my eyes on that~ Our Media said the first stage will complete and run on 2016 if all goes well.
But I dont think exhibit center will be located in the town of Athlone, probably somewhere close the airport or river.

Long Gone

This was always a total non-starter in Athlone - Not near enough to an airport. There was no way buyers from around the worls were going to spend (realistically) two hours on a bus from Dublin to get to a trading hub.

Long Gone

0958 wrote: »

The project is called "Shanghai-on-Shannon"
As a Chinese student, I've been keeping my eyes on that~ Our Media said the first stage will complete and run on 2016 if all goes well.
But I dont think exhibit center will be located in the town of Athlone, probably somewhere close the airport or river.

The project was only called 'Shanghai on Shannon' by some hack writing in the 'Irish Independent' newspaper. The latest I hear is that it will be located in Birmingham in England, which makes a lot of sense because you have a major international airport and the (massive) National Exhibition Centre (NEC) right beside the proposed site. It's also right in the centre of the UK mororway network and (particularly when the HS2 line is completed) within an hour of London by train from Birmingham International station.

They better get a move on if they want to be up and running by 2106 though - We're half way through 2014 already !

charlieIRL

Long Gone wrote: »

The project was only called 'Shanghai on Shannon' by some hack writing in the 'Irish Independent' newspaper. The latest I hear is that it will be located in Birmingham in England, which makes a lot of sense because you have a major international airport and the (massive) National Exhibition Centre (NEC) right beside the proposed site. It's also right in the centre of the UK mororway network and (particularly when the HS2 line is completed) within an hour of London by train from Birmingham International station.

They better get a move on if they want to be up and running by 2106 though - We're half way through 2014 already !

I think there was one planned for Liverpool before the application went in to Westmeath co co and it never went ahead.

Long Gone

charlieIRL wrote: »

I think there was one planned for Liverpool before the application went in to Westmeath co co and it never went ahead.

The application was put into Westmeath Co Co by a bunch of speculating local chancers.They hoped that once outline planning permission was granted the Chinese would be interested in getting on board - In the event they had no interest whatsoever. There was never any real substance to the proposal for it to be located in Athlone.

coylemj

Long Gone wrote: »

The application was put into Westmeath Co Co by a bunch of speculating local chancers.They hoped that once outline planning permission was granted the Chinese would be interested in getting on board - In the event they had no interest whatsoever. There was never any real substance to the proposal for it to be located in Athlone.

So the international airport in Tubber won't go ahead? Damn.

Long Gone

coylemj wrote: »

So the international airport in Tubber won't go ahead? Damn.

Tubber ? - I thought it was going to be at Horseleap.

Knock Airport would have been built in the midlands if the location was picked for sound economic reasons. Instead it was built on a foggy, windswept bog im Mayo for political reasons - Zanu FF gombeenery at its best.

charlieIRL

coylemj wrote: »

So the international airport in Tubber won't go ahead? Damn.

haha!!

The architect is still plugging away for it actually. Looks impressive on plan.

L.Jenkins

I would disregard China Town for now. I had fingers crossed for it, but knew realistically that it would always be a pipe dream. What I would say is, the Council should concentrate on what's within the Town Boundaries and see to giving the centre of town a facelift.

Long Gone

Itzy wrote: »

I would disregard China Town for now. I had fingers crossed for it, but knew realistically that it would always be a pipe dream. What I would say is, the Council should concentrate on what's within the Town Boundaries and see to giving the centre of town a facelift.

Couldn't agree more. Have you seen the state of that water tower at the batteries - Disgusting. High visibility structures like Water towers in American towns are always kept pristine - Why ? - Because they have civic pride and we have none...