Bleary’s £468k creative hub

Pictured with the Mayor of Craigavon, Councillor Colin McCusker (2nd left), are Miceal McCoy, Chair of LAG, DARD official David Small, and Olga Murtagh, Director of Development, Craigavon Borough Council, at the official opening of the new £468,000 Bleary Business and Community Centre.

Officially opened last week, the £468,000 Bleary Business and Community Centre aims to bring a new heart to the community.

The centre will create jobs and provide a major boost to the local economy, and the creative industries in particular.

The initiative has transformed the unused former primary school building into a new multi-purpose facility which will provide space for creative enterprises and talent to network, exhibit, conduct business activities and interact with the Bleary community.

Mayor of Craigavon, Councillor Colin McCusker, said: “The opening of the Bleary Business and Community Centre is hugely significant as the provision of a rural creative hub will revitalise the area economically and socially. The centre will help stimulate growth and competitiveness in the key growth sector of the creative industries which can deliver employment opportunities, increase export potential and enhance creative human capital.

“The wider benefits to the community are also vast, with the facility providing opportunities for rural dwellers and creative talent to share premises, their skills and the specialist equipment contained therein.”

The project was announced in April 2013, with work beginning in July 2014.