ShoppingCentres:After paying what could be a record price to purchase a new outlet in Waterford, Dunnes Stores is to anchor the new Ferrybank shopping centre, writes Jack Fagan
Dunnes Stores has paid what is believed to be a record price for a new shop in Waterford which will allow it mount a challenge to Tesco's dominant trading position in the city.
Tesco already has three stores at Poleberry, Ardkeane and Lisduggan, and had offered "an exceptionally strong rent" for the 6,200sq m (66,736sq ft) of space on two levels that will become available next year when the new Ferrybank shopping centre is completed.
However, developer Derry McPhillips of Deerland Construction opted instead to sell the supermarket and homewares store to Dunnes Stores which has been struggling with its single outlet in the City Square shopping centre in the city.
The high car-parking charge of €1.80 an hour is proving a disincentive to some shoppers.
Tesco's three out-of-town locations with free car parking have managed to corner most of the local business, not least the store at Ardkeane which opens around the clock and is busy for much of the time.
The intense competition for the Ferrybank store underlines the ever-increasing competition between the two multiples for new trading locations, not only in Waterford, but in other cities and large towns.
The opportunity for Dunnes to fight back in Waterford may well be enhanced further in the coming months if, as expected, city planners clear the way for another major shopping centre to be developed on a five-acre site at Michael Street formerly used as a brewery.
The 25,083sq m (270,000sq ft) complex is being promoted by two Wexford businessmen and may well have Dunnes Stores as the main anchor.
Meanwhile, Galway developer Gerry Barrett has mounted a public campaign to persuade city councillors and planners to rezone a parcel of land along Waterford's ring road for yet another shopping centre.
The prospect that Marks & Spencer might come on board has even been raised.
Gerry Barrett bought the same 33 acres from Waterford City Council a few years ago for €45 million.
The €120 million mixed-use Ferrybank centre, on the opposite side of the River Suir from the city centre, will be within one mile of the Rice Memorial Bridge. In total, the development will extend to 23,225sq m (250,000sq ft) and have 1,100 car-parking spaces.
The site will occupy a prominent site with 250 metres of frontage onto the N25 New Ross/Waterford road.
Apart from the city, the centre is also expected to attract shoppers from south Wexford, south Tipperary and Co Kilkenny.
Cormac Kennedy of CB Richard Ellis said that, with the anchor tenant now in place, it was planned to mount a marketing programme for the remaining retail units which would open for business in September 2008.
