The company gearing up to develop a town centre in Dundrum, Dublin 14, will resubmit plans within "weeks rather than months" for the £200 million complex following the surprise decision by An Boad Bord Pleanala to turn down the existing proposals. The main objections involved the style and scale of the building, which was considered to be out of character with the existing pattern of development in the area. In the planners' opinion, the development would "involve an excessive level of separation and difference from the existing built form of the village."
The planning appeals board also objected to the demolition of the List 2 Mill House and Mill Pond on the site.
Castlethorn Construction's site on the south side of the village is between the existing Ballinteer Road and the Dundrum bypass, which will eventually link up with the Southern Cross Motorway. The company has asked its architects, Burke Kennedy Doyle, to reassess the plans on the basis of the objections. The £190 million development originally planned was to include a shopping centre of 350,000 sq ft, roughly the same size as the Jervis Centre in the city centre. In addition to this, there would have been an office park spread over three blocks, a five-storey 150-bedroom hotel, a multiplex cinema with 16 screens and a range of leisure and social facilities, as well as a multi-storey car-park for 3,000 cars. Dundrum already has a 1970s shopping centre that looks very dated indeed. It was sold earlier this year for £14 million to Castlethorn Developments. Tenants include anchors Tesco and Penneys, as well as Ulster Bank, Bewleys and A-Wear, with an annual rent roll approaching £1 million.
It would seem that the two shopping centres would be in direct competition with each other, but according to Castlethorn, they would be "integrated" with both centres offering "different styles of shopping". Despite the centre's dated and unattractive appearance, it is thriving thanks to its accessible retail mix and to its highly populated catchment area. Castle thorn's plans to revamp the centre have been put on hold until its proposals for the new site have been approved. When the original plans for the new shopping centre were lodged in June, it was thought that Tesco would be the anchor tenant, occupying a 45,000 sq ft store. Other tenants in negotiation include Marks & Spencer - for a 50,000 sq ft store which would fulfil the UK multiple's ambition to establish a major out-of-town outlet in this affluent, southside suburb. Two other 25,000 sq ft units would be similarly appealing to UK multiples looking for suburban locations.
The Dundrum Road, from the Bird Avenue intersection to the church in the heart of the village, shows few obvious signs of planned development and looks rundown in places. This makes the board's stress on the character of the area in their ruling a little puzzling.
According to Castlethorn, the fact that the plans were not turned down on the more predictable but difficult to overcome basis of traffic and retail scale allows scope for a reassessment.
