A new indoor artisan food market will be up and running by next March in the former printworks at the Connacht Tribune building on Market Street.

It will feature up to 35 stalls with high-quality foods and act as an ‘incubation hub’ for local producers. The market is also expected to serve wines and beers, while busking will be permitted under licence from the operators, while there will also be an outdoor dining area.

It is a temporary plan by the building’s new owners, the Headspace Group, which ultimately intends to develop a 208-bed hotel over a food market on the site, representing an overall investment of around €60 million. While the long-term plans are being completed for the massive redevelopment project – which includes the adjoining Market Street carpark – the new owners plan to use the printworks space as a market with up to 35 food operators.

The sale of the premises has now been completed and the Connacht Tribune Group (which publishes the Galway City Tribune) will remain a tenant in the main building while relocation plans are drawn up over the next twelve to eighteen months.

Oisín O’Brien, Group Operations Director with Headspace, said the company hopes to lodge a planning application within the next twelve months for the Market Street project – this will involve a 208-bed hotel and a new 20,000 square foot indoor food market.

The planning process could then take another year to 18 months. In the meantime, he said the company wants to make use of the former printworks – which has been used in recent years by arts groups including Galway International Arts Festival – as a food hall.

To that end, a planning application has just been lodged with the City Council for a change of use of the printworks to a food hall.

This is a preview only. To read more about the plans for the site, see this week’s Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week’s paper here.

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