Legal battle over site may delay plans for Ikea store

Plans for the development of the country's first Ikea superstore in north Dublin could be delayed by major legal battle over the site preferred by the Swedish furniture retail giant.

A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council confirmed last night that legal action has been initiated against its subsidiary Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, which owns the site, by the development company Green Property.

It is understood that Green Property is claiming that it has the development rights for the land, which is close to the M50 motorway at Ballymun, where Ikea hopes to site a massive 28,000 square metre outlet.

The 90-acre site had originally been earmarked for a €760 million science park that Green Property was to develop in partnership with Ballymun Regeneration Ltd - the company which is behind the ongoing massive redevelopment of the entire area in north Dublin.

Planning was secured for the first phase of the science park in Ballymun in 2002. However, the scheme never went ahead due to lack of demand for suburban office space.

The Sunday Tribune yesterday reported that Green Property was claiming that it retained the rights for developing the land.

It is understood that this is being contested by Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, which is maintaining that since the scheme did not go ahead that there was no effective agreement with the developer.

Green Property is also understood to have incurred costs of around €7 million as a result of its involvement in the science park project.

Officials from Ballymun Regeneration Ltd are understood to have been in talks in recent times with Ikea with a view to a deal which would see the retail giant take 25 acres of the site originally earmarked for the science park.

Ballymun Regeneration Ltd and Ikea had hoped to be in a position to lodge a planning application for the superstore by the early summer.

However, the legal battle over the rights to develop the preferred site for the Ikea development could delay the project.

The Government recently eased official planning guidelines to allow for the one-off development of such superstores in designated areas.

The site in north Dublin is considered to be one of the few locations in the capital that meets the criteria for an Ikea store.

Fingal County Council told The Irish Times last month that it had begun a series of meetings with Ikea regarding the development of an outlet in its area.

One of the considerations which the local authority is expected to examine is that traffic on the M50 or access to Dublin airport would not be impeded by shoppers entering and leaving the proposed giant Ikea outlet.