DUN Laoghaire shopping centre will face further competition from today when Bloom fields, a new retail centre in the same area, opens for business with a number of high-profile tenants.
The £20 million shopping centre, on the site of the former Dominican Convent in Dun Laoghaire, will have Quinnsworth as its anchor tenant.
Although Quinnsworth operates a large supermarket in the older shopping centre, it will trade in the new location with a more up-market operation to be known as Bloomfields Food Hall. Power Supermarkets, which operates the Quinnsworth chain, paid £5 million for the store.
The centre contains 140,000 square feet of retail space, which will produce a rental income of £800,000 for the developers, Monarch Properties.
The complex is likely to have a direct effect on the 20-year-old centre which has had mixed fortunes over the past few years. It is also expected to provide strong competition for two other centres in Blackrock - the Frascati and Blackrock shopping centres.
Monarch hopes to capitalise on what is a considerable catchment area of around 400,000 people, said to be the third largest conurbation in Ireland.
Traders at the new centre will include well-known retail chains such as Boots and Benetton. For Boots, it will be the third store the UK healthcare chain has opened as part of its plans to expand in Ireland. It is taking a 4,000-square-foot unit at Dun Laoghaire and plans to open a unit at Quarryvale in west Dublin when that centre is completed towards the end of next year.
Electrical goods retailer Argos is currently fitting out its store, which will open in August. It will occupy 6,500 square feet on two levels.
Other retailers include Bewleys, which will trade under the Ernests Restaurant banner, its second such operation.
The centre will trade seven days a week and will feature longer opening hours than those traditionally associated with shopping centres. It will open from 8.30 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. six days a week, and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
Rents are £31 per square foot and the centre, which includes 25 shop units, was folly let three months ago by agents Douglas Newman Good.
The Bloomfields Food Hall will form the centrepiece of the development. Quinnsworth's sister chain, Stewarts in Northern Ireland, runs a similar store in Bangor, Co Down.
The Dun Laoghaire store will have a floor area of 50,000 square feet. It will carry a wide range of foodstuffs and will have a large off-licence. The aisles will be very wide - 10-12 feet - and there will be a range of special services including a free delivery service, gift wrapping and hampers and fruit baskets made up on request.
There will be a food adviser on hand to help customers with all aspects of food, dietary information and entertaining at home.
Tesco, which recently bought the Quinnsworth/Crazy Prices and Stewarts supermarkets chain from Associated British Food for £640 million, is expected to introduce further services which are currently available in its British stores.
The centre has a two-storey car-park, with 550 car spaces, which has been sold to four businessmen. They paid in excess of £6.5 million for the car-park, underlining the continuing strong demand for such investments.
The investors will be able to claim tax relief on 50 per cent of the construction costs, of which 25 per cent can be claimed in the first year. The car-park operator can avail of double rent allowances for 10 years.
Beside the centre is a £250,000 supervised children's playground - built by the centre's developers, Monarch Properties, and given to Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council. There will be a separate children's creche on the ground floor.
The developers have reached a deal with Ward Anderson for a 12-screen multiplex cinema.
There are seven apartments in the complex, but they are unlikely to be offered for sale on the open market.
