How about a leisure centre for Balbriggan?
After writing a blog this week for Balbriggan News with the suggestion to build a Water Park at Bremore Regional Park I was doing some research on the death of retail on the high street and have seen many great ideas with boutique shops selling experiences and items that will attract retail shoppers. Also “out of town” brands could be attracted to our main streets. We need to first bring people to visit balbriggan, we need tourist attractions, places and business people are willing to travel for. An example I came across to day on Sky News is Donncaster in the UK, which had similar problems to many towns that have “out of Town” shopping. However Keith Wortley saw an opportunity to bring fun into town and something that cannot be affected by the move to online shopping. He took over the former BHS site in Doncaster's Frenchgate shopping centre and converted it from a failed retail premises and into a trampolining and activity centre, nestled among the shops.
Read the full Sky News Report What Doncaster tells us about the world of online shopping
Creative thinking and attracting business that are not ever going to be affected by online trade. Use existing retail space in a new way to transform not just the Main Street but Balbriggan’s town centre in an ambitious and pioneering way. Offering different experiences, complimenting the retail offering really is innovating the high street and will strengthen Balbriggans position as a leading local shopping destination. A world class tourist attraction like this has the potential to create 100’s of jobs.
Tourists are not just people on holidays, there are over 1 million people living in Dublin and Balbriggan is only a 40 min train journey. We can put Balbriggan back on the map and get visitors coming from all over Ireland, just like in the days of Monsey. Adventure and memorable experiences are what people are after.
Balbriggan needs attract serious investors in and allow them develop attractions and places for new business to construct new experience led attractions.