Only weeks after the sale of Roches Stores to Debenhams, Arnotts' plan for a new "Northern Quarter" in central Dublin underlines the continuing dominance of Henry Street in the city's retail scene.
Arnotts chairman Richard Nesbitt is pitching the €700 million development at big name mass market retailers but he also hopes to attract night-time revellers and city dwellers into the zone with a mixture of cafés, restaurants, bars and apartments.
Citing the popular Bar Italia development north of the Millennium Bridge, Mr Nesbitt believes his project has the potential to breathe new life into an area of the city that empties once the shop doors close in the evening.
He hopes to put a shine on Princes' Street, a grim access route off O'Connell Street that long served as merely a short cut to Henry Street.
"The main aim of the plan to recreate Princes' Street as a fully-engaged urban street and pedestrian thoroughfare which will become Dublin's premier shopping street, connecting the centre of O'Connell Street, through to Henry Street, with a new public square at the centre of the development," Arnotts said.
For good measure, the plan includes a 152-bed hotel and spa complex designed to attract boutique hoteliers such as the international Malmaison chain. It is a far cry from the "roguish stall traders in Moore Street" and hawkers with the "cheeky Charlies" that were cited in Mr Nesbitt's brochure for the scheme.
Ambitious as he most certainly is, he does not plan to attempt the project alone. In the coming weeks, he will conduct a beauty parade to select a strategic partner to build the scheme, which will be in construction for four years at the very least.
Arnotts' considerable property holdings in the area could already be worth €500 million, so any developer contemplating involvement in the project will have to pay up to €100 million for the 20 per cent equity stake that Mr Nesbitt is offering.
The unveiling of the plans yesterday also cast light on the intentions of Penneys, which will partner Arnotts to upgrade its own store on the corner of O'Connell Street and Princes' Street.
A fashion retailer that rarely makes any public utterances about its business, Penneys managing director Seamus Halford broke with convention yesterday to say that it will invest €45-€50 million to double the space of its current store to 100,000 square feet.
The totality of Penneys current plans for its Irish unit will see the floorspace of its 35 stores increased to 1.1 million square feet from 760,000 square feet when three new stores and six redevelopments are included.
While planning permission for the Northern Quarter will be sought only this week, Mr Nesbitt said the city planners were already familiar with his plans. However, he conceded that the project would be unique if it raised no objections.
Comprising 47 shops, 17 cafés, 189 apartments and a 152-bed hotel, the project will be a vast undertaking. If Mr Nesbitt is correct, it will act as a catalyst for further residential developments in the heart of the city.
