McNamara's €60m project

Developer's company seeks go-ahead from Nama for Tallaght leisure/retail centre, writes JACK FAGAN

A COMPANY controlled by developer Bernard McNamara is to seek the approval of Nama to proceed with a €60 million leisure and retail complex at the front of The Square shopping centre in Tallaght, Co Dublin.

The promoters are hoping that with 55 per cent of the proposed centre already pre-let the State rescue bank will support the development, which will include 13 cinemas with a total of 3,000 seats. Nama has taken over loans and assets held by McNamara.

UCI/Leisureplex has agreed to an initial rent of €2 million for the three top floors of the five-storey-over-basement building, which will extend to 25,000sq m (268,422sq ft). There are no break clauses in the 25-year lease. One of the 13 cinemas will be capable of seating 500 people, making it one of the the largest in the country. The two-storey cinema with a “blockbuster” screen will cater mainly for major new film releases. UCI is also planning to instal a leisureplex facility similar to those in Blanchardstown, Liffey Valley and Stillorgan.

McNamara’s company Laytar Ltd is thought to have paid in the region of €20 million for the two-acre former Woodie’s site in Tallaght, which was owned by a group of investors assembled by Derek Quinlan. They had initially planned to develop a shopping facility and 350 apartments on the site.

Though Laytar has given no indication of the likely cost of developing the revised mixed- use centre, the overall figure is likely to be in the region of €40 million, according to construction industry sources.

South Dublin County Council has already given approval for the building, which will have retail use on the ground and first floors extending to 11,781sq m (127,000sq ft).

Kelly Walsh Property Advisers is to target “big box” traders offering them units ranging in size from 1,000 to 11,781sq m (10,764 to 126,810sq ft). The shops will be available to let or for sale. Rents will be in the region of €295.98 per sq m (€27.50 per sq ft) while the sale price will be around €4,500 per sq m (€420 per sq ft). Should all the retail space be rented, the overall scheme could have a rent roll of close to €7 million.

Jeremy Kelly, of Kelly Walsh, said they expected that the footfall and consumer profile that would be generated by the cinema/leisureplex facility would prove extremely attractive to retail operators, particularly those in the sports, leisure and fashion sectors.

The design, by Burke Kennedy Doyle architects, includes a basement car park with 270 spaces which will be a accessed directly off Belgard Road. There will be a direct escalator access to the upper floors from a new public plaza at the junction of Belgard Square East and Blessington Road. The scheme will adjoin the existing McDonald’s drive-through restaurant.

Michael Hynes, who is employed by the McNamara group, said Laytar was confident the Tallaght scheme would move ahead in the short term and meet the opening date of December 2012. He said with very few large retail letting deals being completed at present the UCI/Leisureplex agreement was positive news for the industry.