Retail MarketA €300m shopping centre opens tomorrow in Kilkenny while work is to start soon on a second one also costing €300m. Michael Parsonsreports
Critics of out-of-town retailing will be pleased that a major new shopping centre - opening in Kilkenny tomorrow - is close to the centre of the mediaeval city.
MacDonagh Junction - a €300 million development of shops, offices and apartments - has been built on a brown-field 10.5-acre site beside the railway station. The commercial timing is fortuitous with Halloween out of the way and Christmas shopping about to get underway with a vengeance.
The centre will create 500 jobs and provide Kilkenny with over 25,000sq m (270,000sq ft) of new shopping space. The rent for a standard unit of 153sq m (1,652sq ft) works out at €904 per sq ft (€84 per sq ft) while other shops, depending on size and location, are renting at €807 to €1,184 per sq m (€75 to €110 per sq ft).
Although it already operates a large store in the city, Dunnes Stores has taken the anchor tenancy and is opening a 7,000sq m (75,347sq ft) shop. The country's leading retailer has stolen a march on Britain's Tesco which has yet to establish a presence in Kilkenny. In fact, Kilkenny is now the last Tesco-free county in Ireland.
An adjacent mall with about 50 shop units will host a mix of Irish and international retailers which include: Bagel Factory; Benetton; Carphone Warehouse; Champion Sports; Claire's Accessories; Costa Coffee; Mexx; Peter Mark; River Island; Sisley; The Bag Shop; The Health Store; T K Maxx and Zumo.
A promotional mail-shot trumpeting "a new heritage of shopping" promises that Next, Virgin Megastores, Barratt Shoes and "many more" are coming soon.
The development includes 114 apartments with prices for a one-bedroom apartment starting at €245,000; two-beds from €315,000; two-bed duplexes from €350,000; and three-beds from €365,000.
A spokesman said 65 apartments "which carry generous (Section 23) tax allowances for investors" have already been sold since last month's launch.
There is underground parking for 1,100 cars. An estimated 8,000sq m (26,000sq ft) of office space will include "start-up" business units. And the promoters say that "restaurants, performance spaces and leisure facilities are also planned". A 121-bedroom hotel is expected to open in 2008 but the name of the operator has yet to be announced.
The site's architectural heritage, including a 19th century workhouse and Victorian railway buildings, are being restored and incorporated into the development. During the excavations, hundreds of skeletal remains were discovered in an unknown mass grave which is believed to date from the Famine. They are expected to be re-interred in a single crypt to create a permanent memorial at the site.
MacDonagh Junction, like the adjacent railway station, is named after the 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh who had links with Kilkenny.
The owners are a consortium of investors assembled by Davy Stockbrokers and businessmen Paul Hanby (formerly of Dublin law firm BCM Hanby Wallace) and Paul Newman (chairman of estate agency Douglas Newman Good). The builder was McNamaras.
Kilkenny County Council and CIÉ, the previous owners of the site, have jointly retained a 9 per cent shareholding in the development.
Hanby described MacDonagh Junction as "a new city quarter which will be very highly regarded not just in Kilkenny but throughout Ireland" and said it would "attract further commercial, consumer and residential activity into the city". It is estimated that 200,000 people live within a 45-minute drive of Kilkenny.
Edmund Douglas of letting agent Douglas Newman Good Commercial, described the rejuvenation of the protected buildings as "fantastic". He said the overall development would provide an excellent boost to the city and surrounding area in terms of employment and complementing the existing Kilkenny shopping experience by bringing new retailers to the area.
Initial hostility to the development by some in the local business community appears to have dissipated. With Kilkenny's population predicted to grow by 50 per cent over the next decade there seems to be general acknowledgement that new shops are needed. The developers hope that MacDonagh Junction will attract back shoppers who have been drifting to other towns in the region - such as Clonmel, Waterford and Carlow. Weary residents who have endured relentless construction traffic, associated roadworks and the inevitable noise and dirt will be relieved when the centre opens tomorrow. But they will, in fact, be facing "groundhog day".
Just yards from MacDonagh Junction a major new development is about to get underway. The developers of "Citymart" - also expected to cost about €300 million - are planning to build "a mixed-use urban development incorporating shops, restaurants, offices, cinema, medical centre, hotel, 54 apartments and 1,200 car-parking spaces" on 13 acres which formerly housed the livestock mart.
The project is a joint venture between Kilkenny Livestock Market Ltd and Melcorpo Property Development Ltd, a property development company. The livestock mart itself has relocated to a green-field site on the outskirts of Kilkenny. A spokeswoman for Citymart said: "A decision on the planning application is due in the near future", and construction is expected to start next year. She said "the shopping element will be anchored by a 6,500sq m (70,000sq ft) supermarket and an international branded department store". She could not comment on local speculation about the prospective tenants. But is it widely anticipated they include Tesco and Marks & Spencer.
