Retailing:The growth of Citywest continues at a frenetic pace with construction of its new shopping centre at an advanced stage.
More than 80 per cent of the new shops are now signed or reserved with a small number of retail units remaining and an opening planned for September 2007.
The centre is part of a mixed-use scheme and is set on about 17 acres. It will provide space for more than 30 retail units offering fashion, lifestyle and amenity outlets as well as restaurants, crèche, medical centre, offices and 360 residential units.
Anchor Dunnes Stores has taken possession of its 6,700sq m (72,118sq ft) store and is currently fitting out in time for the official centre opening this September. This will be a large full-format Dunnes Stores with 60 per cent drapery and 40 per cent grocery.
Joint agents Bannon Commercial and Savills Hamilton Osborne King have also indicated that confirmed tenants at the retail complex will include O'Brien's Fine Wines, Now News and Eddie Rockets. These three join already signed tenants, McCabe's Pharmacies, Free Spirit Hair & Beauty, Costa Coffee, Carphone Warehouse, Jean Scene and KFC. The final mix should be complete and ready for announcement within several weeks, according to the agents.
Importantly, the Luas extension is now planned, with the additional track set for completion by 2009 and a station located at the entrance to the shopping centre site.
The developers believe this could bring an extra five million Red Line passenger journeys down the extension. The centre will also provide about 600 car parking spaces.
Hugh Lynn of Davy Hickey Properties believes the success of the new centre is linked to the ongoing demand for shopping from a fast growing population in the catchment area of Citywest.
He points out that 15,000 people are now living within a one kilometre radius of the site, and this is expected to double in the next few years due to the amount of new residential development in the surrounding area.
Developer for the retail complex is Davy Hickey Properties, the company responsible for the Citywest Business Campus.
Citywest currently accommodates more than 130 national and international companies on a 400-acre site, with the tenant list including AOL, SAP, AIB, Nestlé and Pfizer.
The quality of architecture, landscaping and infrastructure there has helped Citywest achieve one of the lowest vacancy rates of any business campus in the State.
More than 7,000 employees are employed on the campus, with numbers expected to reach double that figure.
For further information contact Peter Levins, Bannon Commercial 01 6477900 or Stephen McCarthy, Savills Hamilton Osborne King 01 6181300.
