Newtownards town centre is to receive a radical overhaul and regeneration boost as the result of a proposed £250 million investment by Castlebawn Ltd, a joint venture between Eastwood Property and R&A Group. The ambitious proposals which promises to create more than 2,000 jobs will extend the town centre and edge of centre southwards in a three-stage development known as Castlebawn. The development is expected to be completed by 2012.

The regeneration scheme will inject new vigour into Newtownards’s retail offer by vastly improving the road system, expanding the town centre, developing its cultural heritage and transforming the town into a profoundly attractive visitor destination.

Newtownards stands to gain enormously from the proposed development. The current traffic congestion in the town will be dramatically reduced by a ringroad running south of the town centre. The completed project will reverse Newtownards's decline and create a successful regional centre attracting visitors and shoppers from all over the North and South of Ireland plus visitors from abroad.