ShoppingCentres: The Whitewater shopping centre in Newbridge will be a regional attraction, writes Jack Fagan
A major new regional shopping centre opening tomorrow in Newbridge, Co Kildare, is expected to attract shoppers stretching from Co Meath to Co Waterford because of the particularly strong line up of big name traders.
The €400 million Whitewater shopping centre will not only be the largest outside Dublin but it will arguably have the best tenant mix of any new provincial shopping complex opened in recent years.
With Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValu already operating large stores in Newbridge, the promoters of Whitewater were in a position to target the thriving fashion and lifestyle market once they had lined up Marks & Spencer for one of the anchor units. The strategy worked and Whitewater will be promoted as a "mass market fashion centre" that will serve a broad stretch of the midlands and the east coast.
The ever-worsening traffic congestion in Dublin city and suburbs and the willingness of major traders to open in thriving towns, such as Newbridge, will mean that many provincial shoppers will no longer have to endure the long and often tortuous trek into Dublin to get high quality fashion and other goods.
The biggest coup for Whitewater was to sign up the UK department store giant Debenhams which normally prefers to stick to big cities. The multiple will now be one of the major attractions in the centre, trading out of two levels with a combined floor area of 6,967sq m (75,000sq ft).
It already operates stores at the Jervis centre in Dublin and Mahon in Cork and is likely to open in Galway when it finds a suitably large premises.
Once the two anchors had come on board, there was considerable competition for most of the remaining 55 shop units. Many of the main fashion operators will be opening for the first time outside the main cities.
A promenade running along one side of the shopping centre, to be knowas The Avenue, will feature many of the boutiques and beauty services that will be especially welcomed by fashion conscious women.
The impressive line up assembled by joint agents Hamilton Osborne King and Colm McEvoy Auctioneers includes Zara, H&M, A-Wear, Oasis, Coast, Bershka, River Island, Karen Millen, New Look, Monsoon, Esprit, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Jane Norman, Ladybird, Sasha and The Perfume Shop. Others opening tomorrow will be Champion Sports, Virgin, Easons, Peter Mark, Clarks, Barratts, Nature's Way, Vodafone, Dr China, Peats World of Electronics, Health Express Pharmacy and the Card Gallery.
Another strong selling point will be the extensive food court which will have seating for more than 500 diners. With a large proportion of the shoppers likely to travel by car to Newbridge, the centre will have 1,700 spaces in a multi-storey car-park as well as in the basement.
The new centre will have 32,000sq m (344,448sq ft) of retail space in a handsome, modern layout over two floors which will be kept constantly bright by vast areas of overhead glazing.
Henry J Lyons handled the overall architectural plan and the interior design was carried out by London specialists, Benoy, which has been in business since 1947.
Whitewater has been developed jointly by Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Properties and Sean Dunne's Mountbrook Homes. The two developers are among the busiest players in the industry.
Ballymore is involved in about 30 projects in Ireland, the UK and central Europe with an estimated gross development value of €22 billion.
Mountbrook will have more than enough on its plate when it gets stuck into the redevelopment of the Jurys and Berkeley Court sites in Ballsbridge which cost €260 million.
