Sligo's status as a major retail town will soon be enhanced by two significant commercial developments. The Buttermarket Centre, in Quay Street, will provide nearly 130,000 sq. ft of shopping space by the middle of next year, bringing 37 shopping units and 700 parking spaces to a town which does not have a major shopping centre.

An announcement that a leading supermarket group has taken an anchor tenancy will be made within a fortnight, according to the Mike Smith and Sons estate agency, which is promoting the development.

Already, a major tenancy on another floor has been taken by a leading department store, and the majority of retail units have already been let, says Mike Smith. The town's second development is being driven by Sligo Corporation which has ambitious plans to turn the present crowded car-park at Wine Street into a high-quality pedestrianised city square with shopping units on the perimeter and a multi-storey car-park.

The ultimate aim is to pedestrianise the town centre shopping area. The corporation has commissioned a plan for the development from the National Building Agency and hopes to have planning applications in by the end of this year.

News that the EU has agreed 100 per cent tax relief on capital costs in the latest round of urban renewal incentive schemes can only drive faster the corporation's plans for the town centre.

The Wine Street development marks a decisive rebuff by Sligo's planning authorities to out-of-town shopping centres. Proposals for two such commercial developments have come to naught and borough officials nailed their colours to the mast when they rejected the concept in favour of restricting major retail developments to the town's core.

Developers had suggested a shopping centre project on corporation land in the inner suburban area of Forthill. This area had been proposed for designated urban renewal status and the development relied on securing that. The area failed to achieve designation and the proposal fell with it, having already caused local controversy over the possible loss of amenity areas and aroused hostility from city centre retailers.

Another peripheral shopping centre at Carraroe, on the outskirts of the town, was rejected and the corporation's policy has been, in the words of acting town clerk John O'Dwyer, to "consolidate the city centre".

However, a local auctioneer said he believed the site's Donegal-based developers were "in for the long haul and, though their plans might have changed, they would be there for another while". A second site had been acquired in this area by Dunloe Ewart but a company spokesman said it now had no interest in Sligo.

A major issue for commercial interests will be the town's ability to absorb increased traffic from retail activity. Traffic congestion has been a problem in Sligo for over 10 years and proposals for an inner relief road have been stalled for nearly as long.

At present, a public sworn inquiry ordered by the Minister for the Environment is taking place following 36 objections to the environmental impact statement for the route and compulsory purchase orders