ShoppingCentres: The new Charlestown shopping centre in Finglas is be anchored by a 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) Dunnes Stores outlet, writes Edel Morgan.

Dunnes Stores is to be the anchor tenant at the €75 million Charlestown shopping centre which is part of a residential and commercial complex at St Margarets in Finglas, Dublin 11, which will be built by Bovale Developments.

This is Bovale's most ambitious development to date and the first phase is expected to open in November 2007.

It includes 17,000sq m (182,986sq ft) of retail space and 283 residential units in a 12-storey signature building.

Dunnes Stores is to take a 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) unit with food hall and homeware departments.

As part of the development, Charlestown Avenue - currently under construction - will be a new multi- lane road that will connect St Margaret's Road to the N2.

Bovale Developments is funding this new road along with a complete upgrade of St Margaret's Road at the Charlestown Centre boundary, which it says will help alleviate traffic congestion in the area.

There will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments located above the retail areas in five buildings.

Bruce Gilbreth of London-based Bruce Gilbreth architects believes the centre will cater for the growing local population and says, when fully occupied, there will be 10,000 new home owners in and around the development site.

"In our design brief we factored in a need for facilities for people living in the area. We have also included large public spaces and piazzas, where people can meet and converge, in a pleasant living environment that underlines a social fabric that exists 24 hours."

The development will incorporate a vast roof garden which, according to Gilbreth, "is the equivalent size of Fitzwilliam Square and almost as big as Croke Park".