Development work on a new town centre in Dundrum, Dublin 14, is due to begin next September following the withdrawal of planning objections to the £200 million complex. The centrepiece of the scheme will be a civic square which will be landscaped and include an 18th-century mill-house and mill pond, a 200-seater theatre, community rooms, a creche and other public facilities.
Last May Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council granted planning permission for the centre which will include 350,000 sq ft of shopping but the scheme has since been held up because of two third-party objections from the Dodder Anglers Club and a resident of Lynwood housing estate. The objections have now been withdrawn following undertakings given by the promoters, Castlethorn Developments.
The decision to proceed with Dundrum Town Centre comes two weeks after the planners cleared the way for the redevelopment of Stillorgan Shopping Centre. Both centres will be in competition for many of the high profile UK multiples including Marks and Spencer, Boots and Dixons.
While the Stillorgan scheme was always fraught with difficulties because of the traffic problems it generates, the Dundrum planning application was strongly favoured by the council once it had designated Dundrum as one of the two major town centres in its area along with Dun Laoghaire.
The hold-up of the scheme has delayed the building of the Dundrum by-pass which will play a crucial part in dealing with the chronic traffic problem in the area. The by-pass will be one of a network of roads that must be in place before the M50 extension is completed to the Ballinteer interchange next summer.
The new town centre will involve the redevelopment of the southern end of the town where the Super Crazy Prices store is currently located. Tesco will have a 40,000 sq ft supermarket and there will be 80 other shops on three levels.
A further 80,000 sq ft will be set aside for either one or two department stores. Marks and Spencer is likely to be in competition for this outlet to fulfil its ambition of having a major outlet in one of south Dublin's more affluent suburbs. Although the British multiple has clearly lost much of its appeal over the past two years, it may well pitch for a second store in Stillorgan once that centre has been extended.
Dundrum Town Centre will have a four-star, 78-bedroom hotel with a conference centre and a business park set over five levels. There will be around 150,000 sq ft of offices, business starter units and commercial showrooms. Permission has also been granted for 62 apartments on the 21-acre site which formed part of the Pye lands between Ballinteer Road and the Dundrum bypass.
Castlethorn Developments is in a position to deliver what amounts to a comprehensive suburban regeneration project because it also owns the existing shopping centre on the opposite side of the town. It has undertaken to link the new development with the existing village now that it has acquired a further acre of land at the rear of Mulveys. A planning application to extend the existing centre in Dundrum will be lodged later this year to copperfasten this arrangement.
Like Castlethorn, the owners of the Stillorgan development have had a long battle to redevelop its centre which has been bedevilled by traffic and parking problems for many years. Over a year ago, the planning appeals board refused the owners planning permission to double the size of the centre.
The new planning permission granted by the Dun Laoghaire council includes a large number of conditions. The centre was bought in 1996 by Castlemarket Holdings, in which Treasury Holdings and Jermyn Investments hold stakes.
