54-bed hotel in boost for Downpatrick

54-bed hotel in boost for Downpatrick

30 April 2025

A 54-bed boutique hotel is at the heart of an ambitious plan to redevelop Downpatrick’s former police base in Irish Street.

Concept designs for an exciting multi-million pound development which includes a number of adjacent, empty buildings and car park were unveiled on Monday evening.

Draft designs — which have been drawn up by specialist consultants — include 10,000 square feet of retail space and a private apartment block, with developers due to be asked to submit bids to carry out the work in September.

A similar exercise towards the end of 2022 failed to ignite developer interest.

But to help generate momentum, paving the way for what has been described as a “transformational” town centre project, work is underway to provide financial assistance to a preferred bidder by way of grant support.

Details of the scheme were outlined by the Downpatrick Regeneration Working Group, which is helping spearhead the development in partnership with the Department for Communities and Newry, Mourne and Down Council.

At Monday evening’s special briefing, plans for a £3m environmental improvement scheme in Church Street and De Courcy Place were outlined, with an upgrade of St Patrick’s Avenue also in the pipeline.

Work is also underway to transform the Grove area, while a new £500,000 urban sports park featuring facilities for skateboarders and bikers is well underway at Dunleath Park.

Work on a major town centre resurfacing scheme was completed recently with regeneration officials delighted with the support from the Department for Infrastructure, with engineers examining ways to help address town centre congestion and a possible pedestrianisation scheme.

Improving town centre links is another key strand of the regeneration blueprint to encourage people to sample the many facilities the town has to offer including its historical sites, heritage railway and racecourse.

Regeneration working group chairman Mal McGrady says Downpatrick has so much to offer and highlighted the importance of “talking up the town” where there is a lot going on and so much to promote.

Mr McGrady said it was 18 months since the launch of the town’s Living High Streets Framework which was unveiled just weeks before Downpatrick was devastated by catastrophic flooding.

He said while recovery was not easy, the resilience, perseverance and hard work by many people had enabled the town centre to regenerate itself.

“The Irish Street redevelopment is our flagship project, but it will not happen overnight and it is going to take a number of years, but it will be transformational for our town centre,” Mr McGrady said.

“There is a lot of money coming into Downpatrick to facilitate a number of projects from council and central government and there is so much more to be done. With everyone’s assistance, we will push forward on this front,” he added.

Department for Communities deputy principal Catherine McInerney said consultants were commissioned to come up with a strategic masterplan for the Irish Street site so its development potential could be tested in the marketplace again.

“The masterplan covers the Irish Street frontage, with a 54-bed boutique type hotel extending to the back of the site, 10,000 sq ft retail space and potentially apartments,” she said.

“Downpatrick can attract much more multi-nationals but there are no suitable sites for the larger companies that need at least 10,0000 sq ft, so we are hoping we will get someone, maybe M&S or some of the rest of them.”

She said a new boutique hotel “will change the face of Downpatrick” and confirmed work is underway on a new procurement exercise for the Irish Street site, confirming that the DfC and local authority are currently working up a business case to justify awarding a grant for this.

“Hopefully the grant will help generate market interest and secure a developer for this site,” Ms McInerney added. 

Regeneration working group member Stephen Magorrian said the planned work in Church Street was intended to improve one of the main entrances to the town and “create a good impression”.

He said preliminary work will start shortly here and in De Courcy Place with the environmental improvements getting underway in earnest at the start of next year, with work currently underway to improve the link between Lynn Doyle Place and the town centre underway.

“We want the people of Downpatrick to be proud of their town and a place that attracts people in. We have secured money from government departments and the council to improve the place and work is underway on many projects,” Mr Magorrian added.