October opening for €2.5m entertainment centre in Athlone
One of the biggest entertainment complexes of its kind in Ireland is due to open in Athlone by mid-October on the site of the old Texas site in Irishtown.
Colm Wright from Elevate Entertainment, who is behind the massive project, confirmed to the Westmeath Independent on Monday of this week that the €2.5 million complex is on course to open by mid-October.
“We are waiting for an ESB connection at the moment, so we don’t have an actual opening date, we are looking at mid-October, but we will definitely be up and running by the end of October,” said Mr Wright.
Work on the re-development of the old Texas site in Irishtown has been ongoing for the past year, he said, with the interior of the building being gutted and reconfigured, and the exterior being completely repainted in recent days.
Electric go-karting will be the anchor of the complex, with the first go-karts due to arrive on site from France early next month. “There is nothing like this entertainment centre in Ireland, and I think it will be brilliant for the town as it will attract people from as far away as Dublin and Galway, and everywhere in between,” predicts Colm Wright, who has been operating go-karting centres in Limerick and Cork for the past 20 years.
Along with go-karting, the massive entertainment centre, which covers an area of 100,00 sq. ft. will also have a roller disco rink, Lazer Tag, a Nerf Gun Arena, Nerf Shooting Gallery, a Playstation 5 room, quasar, mini golf and many other virtual reality and augmented reality pods all under the one roof.
“Athlone was my first choice for a go-karting venue because of its central location, but I couldn’t get a suitable premises in the town 20 years ago,” he said, adding that he has now sold his other two businesses to concentrate on the Elevate Entertainment Centre in Athlone.
The new complex will be open to over-12s and is expected to create a maximum of 40 new jobs in the Midlands. While families and groups of friends will find plenty to keep them entertained in the new complex, Colm Wright says they will be hoping to specifically appeal to the corporate market and also to people organising stag and hen nights.
“We will not be operating a play centre for young children, as there are plenty of other centres doing that, we would see ourselves appealing more to the teenage and adult market” pointed out Colm.
Plans for the redevelopment of the old Texas site in Irishtown were initially lodged with Westmeath County Council at the end of 2019, but no progress was made on the application for several months when the local authority sought further information and clarifications from the applicants and the owners of the Texas site, Steinfort Investments.
Westmeath County Council’s planners had recommended that a €2.5 million entertainment centre on the former Texas site in Athlone should not go ahead because “amusement/gaming arcades” are considered to be an “undesirable use” in Athlone’s Retail Strategy and could be “potentially detrimental” to the commercial environment.
However, the council decided to go against the advice of its own planners by granting planning permission for the massive project, stating that it considered the plans to be a “higher order entertainment centre” that would be frequented by families and visitors to the town.