BUSINESSMAN Pat Doherty is to seek planning permission for a £10 million shopping centre in Drogheda and a £15 million retail complex in Dundalk. The facade of the old Drogheda Grammar School, which was the subject of a lengthy legal dispute with previous owners, is to be rebuilt as part of the development and will house about 4,000 square feet of offices, which are to be rented by Drogheda Credit Union. Mr Doherty paid £700,000 for the school site, and bought in eight other properties, including a hall, to bring the site up to three acres.

The shopping centre will have a total retail area of 60,000 square feet and there will be a multi storey car park at the rear to accommodate 400 cars. The other main shopping centre in the town was bought over a year ago by Hardwicke.

Phillip Monahan's Monarch Properties is seeking planning permission for a 30,000 square foot neighbourhood shopping centre on the site of Garveys cash and carry store on the edge of the town. Quinnsworth has agreed to occupy the anchor store if planning permission is forthcoming. The supermarket has another store in West Street but it is hampered by poor car parking facilities.

Monarch has also sought planning permission for a mixed commercial development on an eight acre site it has acquired on the North Road, a short distance from the town. Garveys is hoping to relocate to the site and permission is also being sought for a multiplex cinema, drive through restaurant and an "enterprise centre".

In Dundalk, Mr Doherty and a partner Mr Gerry Maguire in The Long Walk Shopping Centre are planning to create a new retail street on part of the 10 acre site previously occupied by Carroll's cigarette factory. A new road through the site will link up Clanbrassil Street with The Long Walk. The development will also include retail warehousing.