'Blight' derelict Laois factory to be surveyed by design team

Laois County Council has further explained its plan to turn a derelict factory it owns, into social housing.

The Maltings factory in Mountmellick, built over 100 years ago, lies in a state of partial collapse and is overgrown, sited on the N80 Portlaoise road.

It is a listed building, meaning that it cannot be demolished but must be preserved in any renovation plan, so apartments rather than houses are more likely on the narrow site.

The local authority bought the site for a nominal fee after a developer's apartment plan collapsed with the end of the Celtic Tiger.

In April 2024 they listed it in their monthly report for the first time as a site for social housing.

At the May council meeting, Mountmellick Cllr Paddy Bracken sought more clarity.

"It is long overdue that something be done there. It's a blight on the way in to the town.  I'm glad to see some movement, but I hope it progresses soon," he said.

The Director of services for Housing Angela McEvoy gave him an update.

"It is a very complex protected structure. We are moving it on to the Department of Housing. I would like to get a design team in there to look more closely at it and see what we can get back," she said.

The council states that a design team will be appointed and the plan will be submitted to the Department of Housing for stage one approval, with construction of 30 units to be directly by Laois County Council.

The historic factory was opened a century ago by the Codd family, producing malt for the drinks industry and fortified malt as a health supplement, up until about 2001.

The Maltings site in 2017.

During the building boom, the Maltings was earmarked to become a luxurious apartment block. The developer received planning approval for 37 one and two bedroom apartments. The site was partially demolished at the time.

Hume Auctioneers had sold 20 of the apartments off the plans, promising them to be “noiseless, spacious and bright with cutting edge technology” with the historic site preserved and an “ancient garden” restored.

The site later went into the books of the National Asset Management Agency.

Laois County Council bought the building about a decade ago after the National Asset Management Agency offered it to them for a low price. The council erected site hoarding repeated blew down, replaced in part with metal construction fences. In 2017 it got a grant of €80,000 to build a wall and wrought iron fencing.