Digi Hub nears completion

Seamus Enright

The Council is meeting potential tenants as the proposed digital technology hub for the county town nears completion.

According to the local authority, work on fitting out the facility on the Dublin Road outside Cavan Town is “on course” to be completed by the end of March into early April, when a full official opening is planned in the weeks thereafter.

The refit of what is known as the 'Tower' building in the Kilmore Business Park is being overseen by local construction firm, Sandar Ltd, and began back in September.

“Works are underway, they're ongoing at the moment. From the schedule in place, they should be finished work by the end of March into early April, and hopefully then we'll proceed with an official opening at the end of April or early May,” Director of Services for Enterprise and Development, Brendan Jennings, explained to The Anglo-Celt last week.

Billed as critical to nurturing future tech-based start-ups in the region, the hub will also provide support for existing businesses in the county, and ultimately aim to contribute to establishing Cavan as a leading location in this field.

With the potential capacity to maintain up to 80 high-tech jobs in the locality once fully operational, the development of the hub has benefited significantly from combined allocations totalling almost €500,000 to date.

High speed broadband and high-tech video conferencing services have all been installed in a bid to attract firms to the hub, which is boosted by its connection to SIRO’s 1 GB broadband, to which Cavan was one of the first town's in the country to be linked.

Among the hub's first clients will be software consultancy firm Veltig, owned by Cavan native and company CEO Donal De Paor.

Along with housing permanent clientele, the hub will play host to solo workers and small start-up firms looking to avoid long daily commutes to Dublin and elsewhere through temporary hot-desking facilities.

With four floors in the building, Mr Jennings says the ground floor will act as a general reception area, as well as providing space for conferencing and training, as well as canteen facilities also.

The upper floors will consist of office space layouts.

“We're meeting clients. The question is are they taking full floors, half floors, that all has to be considered now. But it's going well so far, there is a lot of interest and things are moving in a very positive direction,” added Mr Jennings.