One of Northern Ireland’s most innovative construction companies, Maghera Developments Ltd. collected the prestigious ‘Best Bespoke Home Builder – Northern Ireland’ award for their desirable The Corragh development in Newcastle, County Down. We touched base with Office Manager Matthew Graham to get an update on this industry-leading, award-winning company which consistently delivers high quality traditional and modular build projects across a range of sectors.
Originally operating as Maghera Construction from 1984, Maghera Developments Ltd. was founded by managing director Eugene Walker at the start of the millennium.
With their head office located in Castlewellan and their state-of-the-art modular manufacturing facility based just outside Maghera, the County Down company has experienced significant growth and gained a wealth of experience in delivering high quality projects across a wide range of construction sectors including education, healthcare, commercial, leisure, historical, ecclesiastical, residential, and most recently modular contracts.
Maghera Developments have obtained extensive experience of managing and delivering projects under various forms of contract including GC Works, JCT and NEC3 – both as a traditional contractor and a Design & Build contractor.
The company’s outstanding track record for high achievement has been reflected in the many major industry awards collected down through the years. The awards keep coming in and, in the past two years alone, Maghera Developments were named as Best Modular Construction Specialist at the BUILD Construction & Engineering Awards 2021 and Best Multi-Sector Modular Construction Specialists at the Irish Enterprise Awards 2021 as well as Best Bespoke Home Builder – Northern Ireland at the BUILD Homebuilder Awards 2022 (for The Corragh) and Bespoke Home Builder of the Year at the Corporate Live Wire Innovation & Excellence Awards 2022.
Maghera Developments have of late been responsible for a few notable housing projects in the idyllic and coveted setting of Newcastle, County Down. Here, they have two prestigious developments on the Bryansford Road, a much sought-after area of the town. Ashleigh was a development comprising 18 large Georgian Style detached properties with eight smaller semi-detached town houses and one small, detached town house, while the award-winning The Corragh is their current luxury development on the Bryansford Road and so far consists of eight bespoke detached houses located on the former site of Shimna House.
The site itself is beautifully mature with lush landscapes and a protected woodland area through which the Shimna River flows to the south. This development has been a great success, with the first phase selling out after only one property had been constructed and the next phase in excessively high demand.
The next development, publicly launched in July, 2022, is called The Tower. Located in the village of Maghera, behind the well-known Maghera Inn, this development will consist of 19 beautifully-finished semi-detached properties, offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a home in a central location right in the heart of this quaint little village.
Following on from the financial crash in 2008, and the subsequent downfall in traditional housing developments, Eugene Walker began investigating new and innovative ways to move forward in the construction industry. In 2010, a game-changing decision was made by the managing director to invest in modular construction.
To this end, Maghera Developments invested a substantial sum of money into developing their manufacturing facility on the Carnacaville Road, Castlewellan and began working with architects and structural engineers to develop their own unique method of modular construction, which would allow for the highest quality standards in conjunction with quick turnaround times.
In 2011, this facility was completed and Maghera Developments began building smaller modular buildings for local community groups such as Bryansford GAC. Following a few successful private contracts, they applied to join the modular framework for education buildings in Northern Ireland. Since then, they have completed and supplied over 80 modular buildings to the education sector in Northern Ireland and have recently joined the framework for modular buildings in the Republic of Ireland.
Regarding the company’s success in being selected as Best Bespoke Home Builder – Northern Ireland, Office Manager Matthew Graham notes: “It was a big achievement, and we are very pleased to pick up that award. We completed the first phase at The Corragh in February, with the second phase to follow imminently. We made our name building bespoke houses to exact client specification and have since turned our attention to delivering high-quality luxury developments with a high-end finish, The Corragh and Ashleigh being two examples of those.
“Demand for The Tower has been exceptionally strong. This development is in an excellent location in Maghera village, which is halfway between Newcastle and Castlewellan and ideal for commuters as it’s 30 miles from Belfast and 20 from Newry.”
These luxury developments perfectly complement the company’s extensive modular building activities. “The Corragh and The Tower are our two main residential developments at the moment and we’re doing them alongside our modular contracts, which are our bread and butter,” Matthew continues. “We mostly supply modular units to the Education Authority in Northern Ireland, with all the work done in-house.
“As well as offering high-quality units manufactured in a controlled factory setting, the other big advantage of the modular units is the massive saving in time. While you are building the units in the factory, you can have a crew on site at the same time doing site preparation and groundworks, etc., and you can achieve significant time savings on the project. Generally, you would be talking about something in the region of twelve weeks from when the contract is signed to handover.”
Between residential developments and public contract work, Maghera Developments provide unrivalled construction solutions, and the quality of their workmanship is down to the excellence of their team on the ground, including five full-time office personnel, five full-time foremen, seven operatives in the modular facility and up to 50 tried and trusted subcontractors from across various trades.
Managing director Eugene Walker and company secretary Christine Walker are supported by a highly-skilled and motivated team including Matthew Graham (Office Manager); Pauline Murnin (Accounts Manager); Liam McVeigh (Project Manager & Health & Safety Co-Ordinator), Martin McParland (Contracts Manager & Quantity Surveyor); Johnny Walker (Company Buyer) and Adrian Doyle (Manufacturing Manager).
“We pride ourselves on the quality of our finish and the quick turnaround of our projects,” Matthew concludes when asked about the key to Maghera Developments’ success and longevity. “We strive to give the best of both worlds and like to think we deliver on that. We can work to very tight deadlines whilst still achieving a high-quality finish and that is a winning combination. In today’s world fraught with economic uncertainty, one of the major keys to success is being able to outlay the funding for housing projects without taking away from our contract works. We are in a unique position, where we operate a cash rich company with the room to expand our projects with minimal operational risk.”
Maghera Developments Ltd,
21 The Square,
Castlewellan,
County Down.
Tel: 028 4377 8722
Email: [email protected]
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, November 2022, Vol 8 No 11
