St. Senan’s Hospital, plus 44 acres of adjoining land, have been placed on the market with a total asking price of over €1.4 million.
ALMOST FOUR years after the initial closure of St. Senan’s Hospital, the HSE has put both the building and 44 acres of surrounding land on the market with asking prices totalling over €1.4m for both.
The old 19th century hospital, which is 148 years old, is for sale with a guide price of €780,000 and is described as “suitable for a wide variety of alternative uses including hotel, leisure, nursing home, primary health care facility, offices, call centre, educational use.”
At present, the area is mostly zoned for ‘New Residential, Community and Education’.
The adjoining land, 44 acres at Killagoley, is located to the rear of the hospital and is laid out in a single rectangular block. It is zoned ‘New Residential’ with strong medium term potential. It goes to the market with a guide price of €630,000 and, unless sold beforehand, will go to auction on February 16 at the Riverside Park Hotel at 12 p.m.
The hospital closed its doors in June 2013 following a series of inspection reports stating that it was not of a suitable standard to be used as a healthcare facility. With closure imminent, only the most vital of repair work was carried out on the building.
The move to place the properties on the market comes after more than three years of deliberation over potential uses for the iconic building with a variety of uses suggested, including its reopening as a mental health facility following the moving of acute mental health care to Waterford Regional Hospital.
Shortly after its closure in June 2013, An Taisce began to focus on the building with the hope of coming up with something that would keep its doors open.
However, the size of the building and the fact that it is listed as a protected structure on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage made it difficult to find viable solutions and it has remained empty, and falling into a state of deterioration since then.
Described by An Taisce as a “major landmark in the Slaney Valley” it was constructed in an ornate Italianate style and while An Taisce acknowledges that there is no immediate danger of collapse, it says that the condition is such that: “unless urgent remedial works are carried out the building will sharply deteriorate”.
