Firhouse shopping centre at Firhouse, Dublin 24, is to be redeveloped at a cost of over €24 million.

Owner John Regan has just secured planning permission to redevelop the complex on a phased basis. When the work is completed, it will have 18 ground and first floor retail units, including a supermarket, a fitness centre/gym, crèche, stand-alone office building and 245 car-parking spaces in an underground car-park. There will also be 53 one, two and three-bedroom apartments at first, second and third floor levels.

The redeveloped centre will have two blocks, one on the shopping centre site and the other facing Firhouse Road. Existing occupiers, including the Central Remedial Clinic, will be accommodated in the new scheme.

Designed by architects Henry J Lyons, the attractive development will include a landscaped square and plaza on the car-park site. A number of the shops will open on to the plaza to ensure that the facility is used at night.

Rents and prices for the new centre will be made available early in the new year by chartered surveyors Browne Corrigan. There is likely to be strong interest in the apartments, many of which will be dual aspect, giving them views over the Dublin and Wicklow mountains. The large parking facility at basement levels will ensure that there is adequate parking for both shoppers and apartment owners.

Peter Brown of Browne Corrigan said that, as a well established, mature south Dublin suburb, Firhouse was overdue a vibrant new shopping centre which would have broad appeal.

Firhouse is within 2kms of both Tallaght and the Luas. It is also within easy commuting distance of the expanding suburbs of Hunterswood, Woodstown and Ballycullen.