Dublin is to get another shopping centre. Construction of a £20 million retail complex and multi-storey car-park in Crumlin is due to begin within two months following the withdrawal of two appeals to An Bord Pleanala against an earlier planning permission.
The Ashleaf centre is to be developed by the Smith family on a 4.35-acre site beside their Submarine Bar. It will include 70,000 square feet of shopping, 600 car-parking spaces and a new-style Submarine Bar. The centre is due to begin trading in the run up to Christmas, 1998.
The Ashleaf centre will draw on some of Dublin's most densely populated areas. The promoters say there are about 80,000 homes with an estimated population of 400,000 within 10 minutes' drive. Research has shown that a large number of these consumers shop at The Square in Tallaght, Blanchardstown Town Centre and the Jervis Centre in the city centre. The Ashleaf will be in direct competition with Dunnes Stores' shopping centre in Crumlin.
The joint letting agents, Mason Owen Lyons and Lambert Smith Hampton, are already in discussions with a number of Irish and UK multiples for the anchor store, which can vary in size from 25,000 to 55,000 square feet. Depending on the size of this unit, there could be up to 30 smaller shops on the ground floor. The developers have not yet decided what use to make of space at first-floor level. Car-parking in the basement will be linked by a travelator to the main retail floor.
Rents for the standard shop units of between 800 and 1,000 square feet will be around £35 per square foot, according to Owen Conway of Mason Owen Lyons.
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