THE developers of the Quarryvale site may seek to have the cap on the retail content lifted, it was indicated yesterday. When permission was originally granted for the west Dublin scheme, planners capped the shopping element at 250,000 square feet.
One of the joint developers Mr Owen O'Callaghan, managing director of O'Callaghan Properties, said yesterday that they would like to get the cap lifted at some future date. They were not currently discussing the issue with the planning authorities, he said. He was speaking after the formal sod-turning ceremony for the centre, which will begin trading in 1998.
The development was capped at 252,000 square feet because of fears that it could grow inordinately large, causing serious traffic and other problems as well as threatening the retail base of the city.
It is situated at the junction of the Western Parkway and the Galway Road, just north of Clondalkin. It is just three miles from the Blanchardstown centre.
Mr O'Callaghan also said he would like to retain his current 20 per cent interest in the shopping element of the development. His joint venture partner Grosvenor Estates, owned by the Duke of Westminster, sold a proportion of its interest in the development to General Accident (GA), the giant life assurance company, for £90 million sterling.
Mr O'Callaghan said he was not disappointed that General Accident had not bought his 20 per cent stake. The GA deal means that it owns 60 per cent of the retail centre, while Grosvenor retains 20 per cent in the venture.
Mr Dick de Broekert, development director of Grosvenor Estate Holdings, said the deal meant that new equity was brought into the development. He said the ultimate shareholding which the developers and GA end up with depends on the centre's performance. Certain targets must be achieved over the next two to three years and the developers could end up with a more minor shareholding if these are not reached.
"If we are successful, we will end up with more," he said.
Mr de Broekert said Grosvenor likes to retain a shareholding in projects it develops. He said the company had recently sold a majority interest in a development in Chester, England, but that was after a 30-year involvement.
"The locals know more than we do, and that's why we tend to work in partnership with local developers," he said.
He stressed that Quarryvale was of great importance to the local community in terms of jobs and the company believed in remaining involved in such projects for at least the first five years.
O'Callaghan and Grosvenor Estates are 50/50 partners in the mixed development element of the 178-acre site. Mr de Broekert said GA might be interested in buying a shareholding in this section of the project.
However, he said there were many development options. The mixed element includes a 150-bedroom hotel, multiplex cinema, restaurants, a public house and an office park.
Mr de Broekert said that the hotel operators, for example, may prefer to bring in their own financiers to build and operate the premises. The same could apply to the leisure complex, he added.
The shopping element will form the mainstay of the whole project. The three anchor tenants are Marks & Spencer, C&A and Boots. The M&S store is the first out of town store in the Republic, and comprises around 100,000 square feet. There will be over 70 shops.
The centre will be the first major shopping centre without a supermarket, such as Quinnsworth, which was in fact negotiating to take space there. Mr de Broekert said it was a deliberate policy not to include a supermarket. "Tallaght and Blanchardstown are both supermarket shopping centres and it was important to distinguish ourselves from them, and more importantly, to get different anchor tenants," he said.
The promoters of the centre claim it will create 4,000 full-time jobs when completed and 3,000 jobs during construction.
