Plan for Melbourne
Cavan Town’s iconic Melbourne Bakery is set to be redeveloped for healthcare use, The Anglo-Celt can reveal.
Dublin registered Labelbrook Ltd applied for planning permission to develop numbers 95 and 96 Main Street, seeking a change of use and alterations.
The Anglo-Celt understands that talks have already taken place with the HSE over use of the property.
Labelbrook is the company behind a 10-year lease with HSE Estates for use of the former Jackson’s Garage building on the corner of Thomas Ashe and Farnham Street as a new Women & Children’s Service Outpatients Department (OPD).
Labelbrook, which represents a consortium, owns the building as well as numbers 95 and 96 Main Street. It purchased the properties in 2018 as part of a major town centre property portfolio.
The 2.42 acre block of retail and development space was traded almost one year to the day it was listed for sale by Urban Renewal Enterprises (Cavan) with a price tag of €3.25 million. Directors of Urban Renewal Enterprises (Cavan) Limited were listed at the time as Darragh Elliott, Noel Elliott (Snr), the late David Mackey, former council County Manager, and Noel Elliott (Jnr).
The town centre portfolio included a total of eight retail units, eight apartments, two public houses, offices, what was then the gaelscoil, a former B&B, carpark, a house, and a development site.
The plans for Nos 95 and 96 also propose the demolition of dilapidated outbuildings and walls to rear of premises, as well as alterations and an extension to car parking to the rear of 95 96, 97, accessible from Farnham Street and Thomas Ashe Street.
The proposed works are located within the curtilage of a protected structure, and plans for the project were drawn up by Michael Fitzpatrick Architects in Butlersbridge.
The company applied for planning permission on April 12 but the application was deemed invalid by the council on Monday of this week, April 17, meaning Labelbrook will have to resubmit the plans to Cavan County Council.
The local authority explained that the application was deemed invalid because there was “no mention of protected structure” within the confines of the site, and “no mention of demolition fees”.
The Melbourne Bakery, which had been a staple of the Cavan Town streetscape for over three decades, closed its doors in January 2020.
It was the second such landmark business in that block of properties to shut up shop in as many months following the closure of Philip Brady Menswear.
At the time Melbourne owner Gerry O’Reilly said that economic circumstances forced his hand making a decision to quit.
“Unfortunately we have been battling with it for a number of years and it just became unsustainable. The size of the business, the size of the premises, the number of staff it took to keep it going - it just wasn’t sustainable,” he said.