Work starts on €60m Bray centre

ShoppingCentres: The retail element of a major new development in Bray is due to be completed by autumn 2005, reports Jack Fagan, Property Editor

A consortium led by Ballymore has begun developing a €60 million shopping centre and residential complex in the centre of Bray, Co Wicklow.

The Florentine Centre at 4/5/6 Main Street will fill an important gap in the local retail market where fashion traders find it impossible to get good sized shops of between 139.35 and 232.25 sq m (1,500 to 2,500 sq ft).

The centre will have 9,000 sq m (96,875 sq ft) of retail space in all on the ground floor including an anchor store, two large outlets and a range of smaller unit shops.

Food retailers likely to be pitching for the anchor unit are thought to include Marks & Spencer, Supervalu, Tesco Metro and Dunnes new convenience store. Joint agents Dooley Auctioneers and Harrington Bannon are reporting strong interest in many of the shops which are likely to be rented at €807 per sq m (€75 per sq ft).

The location of the new complex between Main Street, Quinnsboro Road and Florence Road guarantees its success. Most of the site has been used as a surface car-park and the balance was acquired from over 20 different owners.

The design for the Florentine Centre by Mick Duff of James Twoomey Architects is based on the successful formula of the Funf Hofe Centre in Munich. The four-storey over basement development will include two levels of car-parking (450 spaces over the retail floor) and 57 duplex apartments on the top. Both the retail element and the car-parking are due to be completed by autumn 2005.

Bray has been one of the fastest growing towns along the east coast and has a population of 26,000 and a catchment area with about 80,000 people.

Dunnes Stores already has a supermarket and a separate fashion store; Tesco operate out of the Vevay area on the outskirts of the town while Superquinn is based in the Castle Street shopping centre.

Ballymore is also involved in the development of a much larger shopping centre in Newbridge, Co Kildare, with partners Mountbrook Homes.

That venture is likely to divert many shoppers away from the well-established shopping centres in the Dublin suburbs as well as the city centre because of the expected lineup of top ranking stores.