Ballymore plans £19m Bray shopping centre

PLANNING permission is to be sought for a £19 million shopping centre and multi-storey car-park in the centre of Bray, Co Wicklow. The project is to be promoted by Ballymore, the fast-growing property development company run by Sean Mulryan, which has substantial interests in Ireland and the UK. The new complex is to be located between Main Street, Quinnsboro Road and Florence Road, where Ballymore assembled a site from 10 different owners over a period of more than three years. Bray Urban District Council has agreed to provide additional land for the mainly four-storey multi-storey car-park, which will relieve the parking congestion in the town and facilitate motorists using the new shopping centre. The Florence Road site is currently used as a surface car-park. Ballymore and Bray UDC are likely to share the revenue from the proposed 500-space car-park.

The company also plans to provide about 100,000 square feet gross of retail buildings on two ground floor levels because of the sloping nature of the site. Several multiples have indicated their interest in taking the main anchor store, which is likely to have about 25,000 square feet. A smaller anchor unit will probably have about 15,000 square feet and there will be 15 unit shops.

Mr Ray Hardy, commercial director of Ballymore, said that even at this early stage it had received inquiries from a considerable number of large UK multiples. Ballymore was planning a "destination" shopping centre, rather than a convenience centre, which would have a large catchment area running from parts of Wexford, through north Wicklow and on to south Dublin, he said.

Last May, An Bord Pleanala refused planning for a £20 million shopping centre and residential development on a 17-acre site on the outskirts of the town. Noonan Developments had planned to provide an 85,500-square-foot single-storey shopping complex and 431 car-parking spaces, with Dunnes Stores as the anchor tenant.