NEWSLETTER

From a current visit to Australia where he has been looking at the vast waterfront regeneration under way especially in Melbourne , McCormick's
Colm Cavanagh says he finds inspiration in the waterfront regeneration and development in Melbourne , Sydney , Hobart and Perth . "The enormous energy of Australia 's private sector in bringing forward their cities is a role model for Northern Ireland .

"Derry's advantage is that we are regenerating the very centre of our city, where at different times in the last century there were some 12,000 jobs which have now disappeared: shipbuilding, shipping, docks, naval, railways, freight, factories and small retail", says Cavanagh. "We don't not have to move the centre of gravity of Derry in the way that Melbourne is currently doing. Derry 's current task is to find the next generation of jobs to replace these jobs that have disappeared. The property industry's role is to provide the attractive, modern spaces for the modern, new jobs.

"Derry is fortunate", comments Cavanagh, "to have a City Council which is determined to rebuild the city's economy that was formerly led by the major garment-making sector. And in Ilex U.R.C., Derry has the advantage of having Northern Ireland 's only urban regeneration company.

"The world owes Northern Ireland no favours and the market place will not wait for us. We have to do it ourselves - and we have to do it as imaginatively and energetically and as quickly as we can, or else we would fail our community, especially our school-leavers looking for employment".

McCormick Properties Plc are currently awaiting planning approval for their Prince's Quay building. It has been referred under article 31 by
Londonderry 's Divisional Planning Office to the Planning Service HQ for consideration. McCormicks have already earmarked 65,000 sq ft of the new builsding and will commence construction as soon as planning approval is secured. (McCormicks have enquiries for over 500,000 sq ft of waterfront space).

Designed by Peter Tracey Architects Associates,
Londonderry, the 6-storey, 100,000 sq ft office building adjoins the site of the city-centre cross-river bridge proposed for the local Development Office by WS Atkins in its 2003 "Heart of the City Study". McCormicks are also advised by Peter Hunter of
London on this whole development.

Given the government's December '04 increased financial commitment to the railway network in Northern Ireland, hopes in Londonderry are increasing that the re-location of the Londonderry railway station and a cross-river bridge to Prince's Quay, as proposed by Atkins for the NW Development Office, may be coming closer to achievement. This very major new rail-bus transport infrastructure and bridge would also assist in the opening up of the 26-acre Ebrington site of Ilex URC. And it would adjoin the proposed McCormick building at Prince's Quay.

The city's new MP Mark Durkan, called last month for a new cross-Foyle bridge as "an absolute necessity".

Colm Cavanagh
MD Foyle Waterfront
McCormick Properties Plc
101 Spencer Road
Londonderry
BT47 6AE
Tel: 028.7134.8880.

FOYLE WATERFRONT, LONDONDERRY: NEW E-PRESS RELEASE SYSTEM.



FOYLE WATERFRONT, THE PROPOSED REGENERATION OF DERRY'S FORMER CITY
CENTRE-HARBOUR AREA, HAS SET UP A NEW SYSTEM OF E-PRESS RELEASES. THIS IS AIMED AT INFORMING THE LOCAL COMMUNITY AND OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES OF THE PROGRESS OF THIS VERY MAJOR DEVELOPMENT FOR THE NORTH WEST.

"We are grateful for the assistance of the local media", said Colm Cavanagh, Managing Director of
FOYLE WATERFRONT, "in helping us explain to the community our aims and to receive very valuable
feed-back and suggestions.

The new e-newsletter will add new dimensions to this in two ways:

- firstly, it will allow any individual or group to ensure that they receive this (free) newletter giving all the information that we are sending out to the public. - In addition, it will allow people and companies from
further afield, who don't receive the local media, to ensure that they are also kept up to date with progress here.

"This first e-newsletter, invites recipients to subscribe (free of charge) to these press releases - or, of course, to decline them", says Colm Cavanagh. "I expect that there will be a press release every few weeks describing progress of the development and, perhaps, providing a little
more background information to the work, to the development process, and to the development team".


For further information Contact:

Foyle Waterfront – A Bird’s Eye View.

Like so many examples before it, the once thriving port of Londonderry experienced rapid decline, with the reduction in dependence on navigable rivers and waterways.
Such ports became totally redundant when the sole reason for their existence was taken away, and these spaces were not easily adapted, having served such a specific purpose. Many cities have since grasped the opportunity to revitalise these areas and have turned them to the advantage, not only of the city, but of the entire region in which they had served in their original guise.

In order to place the importance of this type of regeneration in context, it must be viewed at a regional level, being seen as ‘an aspect’ of a regions diversity, rather than ‘an element’ of a particular city. To do this, it must be seen from a birds-eye view, to realise its potential as an asset to the entire region, rather than a worms-eye view, which serves only to compare its potential with its immediate surroundings.

It is such a birds-eye vision that has been the driving force behind the Foyle Waterfront Development by McCormick Properties Plc, on the banks of the River Foyle in the city centre of Londonderry, Northern Ireland. This £600 million vision, to transform the waterfront for the greater good and its core values of sustainable employment, economic symbolism for the youth and regeneration from within the community, has created a prestigious and world class scheme. The main emphasis is on quality public squares and cultural buildings, at the heart of what will be a unique focal point, as a waterfront destination.

A mixed-use development, Foyle Waterfront will deliver 3 million sq/ft of quality office, commercial and retail space over a ten year plan. Initial developments will highlight the potential for investors and tenants alike and act as the catalyst for further growth and major investment potential. Infrastructure development and scale will benefit from this additional piece of the jig-saw, complementing the current up-surge and maturation of Belfast and the Greater Belfast area, by providing alternative environments and completing the overall picture of a region unparalled in quality of living standards and opportunities

Foyle Waterfront will provide quality places of work for the advanced technologies that are the employers of the future, with close emphasis on the specific needs of the existing strengths of Derry, such as The University of Ulster and The Northwest Institute of Further and Higher Education boasting in excess of 30,000 students between them, as well as providing opportunity for bespoke developments, catering for individual investors, tenants and institutions.

The city has existing assets in its historic walled city, cultural richness and developing tourism market, making it an already quality destination. Major US employers have enjoyed long term relationships with the region, including Du Pont, Fruit of the Loom and Seagate International. Foyle Waterfront will be viewed as a quality addition to a city already rich in ‘public realm’, so prized by the world of Landscape Architects.

Again, this scale of development must be viewed in the context of what it will bring to the region, as well as the immediate city. Viewed by investors as yet another ‘aspect’ that Northern Ireland can offer, Foyle Waterfront will fulfill a role in providing diversity and quality of location, in what is in global terms a relatively small ecomonic region. Sustainable employment will create the basis on which to promote the cycle of economic growth, in turn becoming the economic driver for further development, so beginning the positive upward spiral of success and intensive investment activity.

This is a journey which will take Derry and the region to a level now realised by the likes of Salford Quays, which has become an architectural showcase for north-west England, with emphasis on quality of build and striking design by world-class architects. The realisation of such ‘showcase’ destinations creates much more than commercial space. It creates the platform for future development and a basis for the discerning investor to get in at the start of what will transform Londonderry and the regional economic prospects. Moreover, Foyle Waterfront will encapsulate the entire culture of the region and give new momentum to the very fabric and social wellbeing of the people who will bring such spaces to life. It is worth a closer look.

Noel Brown.
Development Director.
Foyle Waterfront.