Strabane firm scoops £2 million contract

A STRABANE company has been awarded a lucrative tender as part of the multi-million pound development of the former Adria site.

Worth up to £2million, Maguire Brothers Contracts Ltd have already started the ground works at Beechmount Avenue and it is anticipated that up to 15 local tradesmen will be employed for the duration.

Expected to take two years to complete, the Maguires’ role is on a phases basis, book-ending the actual building of the new homes.

Led by Habinteg Housing Association, the transformation of the former factory into a mixed social housing development gained full planning permission in June last year.

Costing upwards of £20million in total, the development will consist of 158 residential units in a mix of dwellings and apartments of mixed tenure, two retail units, a play area, multi-functional community space and ancillary accommodation with public and private amenity space, parking, landscaping with access arrangements from outside the site.

The Kevin Watson Group has been tasked with overseeing the building of the various units.

“We’ve been awarded the job of works to complete the ‘civil’ at the Beechmount Avenue,” Barry Maguire, from Maguire Brothers Contracts explained. “We got the contract to do all the civils, the roads and drainage so on. It’s worth about £2million which will take about two years.

“We’ve been working away for the last ten years. We’ve had a lot of work in Scotland and so on. So, yeah, it’s good to be working from home – it’s nice.

“For us it’s a phased job so as well as the drainage at this stage, we’re doing the finishing works as well, the driveways and footpaths. It’s a two year job altogether,” he explained.

“We have already been taking people on. It’ll be around 15 local men altogether.”