Superquinn, the supermarket chain controlled by Senator Fergal Quinn, has applied for planning permission to South Dublin County Council for a new shopping centre on a nine-acre site at the New Nangor Road, Clondalkin, Dublin.
The proposed development is just one arm of the company's rapid expansion plans, which include new stores at Bray, Limerick and Galway, bringing the total number of supermarkets in the group to 25 by 2004.
The New Nangor Road application is for a mixed use retail and office development comprising a 4,477 sq m Superquinn supermarket with a retail floor area of 2,525 sq m.
The large retail floor space included in the development is an indication of changing trends in the business, which is demanding ever more space for a greater range of foods. This factor alone has led to a doubling of requirements for floor space in our supermarkets over the last 15 years.
The development will include a 1,677 sq m department store along with 37 mall units totalling 3,167 sq m, with 7,680 sq m of offices overhead.
There will also be a 479 sq m retail convenience store, a 850 sq m restaurant and three office buildings with almost 1,000 car-parking spaces, about one third of which will be underground.
Access to the development will be from a proposed roundabout on the New Nangor Road. The application also includes associated external works and landscaping, while an environmental impact statement (EIS) was submitted to the Planning Authority with the planning application.
The site is part of three original lots, one to the east owned by Dunloe Ewart which is bounded by the Ninth Lock Road, and one to the west which was developed for housing.
Superquinn describes the development as a "multi-use complex", one of a number of such complexes in the group. The advantage of the multi-use complex is obviously the opportunity to build more intensively on the site, bringing in other retail and commercial properties to underpin the development.
According to Superquinn property manager, Mr Vincent O'Doherty, such multi-use complexes are in place at a number of the group's outlets. Interestingly, Mr O'Doherty points out that it was the local authority which suggested amendments to the original plan, which utilised a lower density.
Inspired by the strategic planning guidelines, which seek to make Dublin less of a one-storey city, the local authorities are asking developers to introduce more of an urban character to the proposals.
While the size of shopping centres has grown dramatically - to the stage where limits have been set by the Government - the size of the supermarkets within them has also grown dramatically.
The group hopes to have its Limerick store open in October and plans are already well advanced for one in Galway. A second store in Bray, at Ballywaltrim, is currently on hold pending the outcome of negotiations with the local authority on the purchase of an adjoining strip of land.
The expansion, in terms of both size and store numbers, is part of a strategic move to reposition the group as more of a national player, as opposed to a family-run, Dublin-based chain.
