Works still some way off on arson hit apartments

Seven months after an arson attack in the basement car park of the Academy Square Complex in Navan, the remedial works required to allow affected residents back into homes has still not commenced.

The management company has also confirmed that the project has not yet gone to tender but that they intend to have a final pre-tender site visit early next month.

On 7th August, a fire extensively damaged the basement car park in the Academy Square complex, damaging several cars and resulting in 34 apartments being evacuated and 100 people being left homeless. The cause of the fire was found to be arson and an investigation was launched by Navan Gardai, which resulted in the arrest of two youths.

While the fire did not spread to the apartments themselves, it damaged the plant room in the basement running services to the apartments and residents cannot return to their homes until the remedial works are completed.

The loss of the basement car park has also caused huge headaches for the residents who were able to remain in their homes leaving them without parking and resulting in open space areas within the complex being used for ad-hoc parking and forcing many residents to park out on the street where paid parking is in operation.

When contacted by the Meath Chronicle for an update, Alan Grehan of the Oriel Property Management Company which manages the complex, said their best estimate at the moment is that works would start in mid-June.

He explained they had not yet been able to go to tender as they only received the original fire cert drawings at the end of December and as these were hard copy, they had to be transcribed onto CAD and then cross checked with the as built environment.

“This has been completed, so we are now in the process of marking up and producing the tender drawings. We are about 50 per cent of the way through this process and intend to have a final pre tender site visit at the start of April, to ensure that everything has been covered.

“Given the scape, scope and potential cost of the project, we need to be as close to 100 per cent accurate on each facet of the works, as even a five per cent margin of error could lead to potentially significant cost overruns.”

Mr Grehan added that their “best estimate” at the minute, assuming the insurance company agrees all costs in a timely fashion, is for work to commence in mid-June.