With good transport links in place or being built, Clongriffin will eventually cater for a population of 25,000, writes Jack Fagan
THE CENTRE OF Ireland's newest town is now complete and ready to fill up with shops and services for a population of 25,000.
Unlike any other major urban centre planned for the greater Dublin area, Clongriffin, on the north-eastern edge of the city, has virtually everything in place before all the homes are built, ensuring that residents will have a broad range of shopping, leisure and social facilities as soon as they move in.
Clongriffin has been designed as the primary commercial centre and transport hub for the wider northern fringe of the city with a full range of retail and commercial buildings, hotel and leisure centres, entertainment and community facilities.
Gerry Gannon, one of the country's leading property developers, has spent close to €500 million on delivering the new town centre and the elaborate infrastructure that will serve a fast-growing residential community between the Malahide Road and Baldoyle. Much of the future growth will be fuelled by a new Dart station due to open in the centre of Clongriffin by early 2009.
Even before that crucial transport link is available, Gannon Developments has completed a 500-space park-and-ride facility under the town square, as well as a 700-space multi-storey car-park. In the meantime, a bus service to Rathmines via the city centre and another one to the Dart station at Portmarnock is being operated to facilitate families who have already moved in.
Two sides of the impressive open air town square designed by Conroy Crowe Kelly Architects have already been completed and include a 2,900sq m (31,215sq ft) ground floor supermarket to be opened in June by Superquinn.
Travelators will take shoppers to an overhead department store of 2,800sq m (30,139sq ft) which is shortly to be offered to the top names in retailing by joint agents HT Meagher O'Reilly and Finnegan Menton.
There will also be bars and small shops at street level and a 67-bedroom hotel which has already been completed. An office block of 1,800sq m (19,375sq ft) has been pre-let to the HSE.
The east side of the square has a high quality five-storey apartment block with 87 homes over ground floor shops which also form one edge of the civic steps leading to the new Dart station. The staggered steps will also lead to a pedestrian, cycle and bus-only bridge to Baldoyle village.
The third side of the square has been earmarked for a 14-storey office building of 6,503sq m (70,000sq ft) that will act as a landmark for Dublin's newest town.
When completed, Clongriffin will have around 3,700 homes and 89,700sq m (965,522sq ft) of commercial uses, all of which has already been approved by the city planners.
The diversity of commercial uses will include not only the supermarket but street level shopping, restaurants, bars, cafés, hotel, offices, cinema, day hospital, motor showrooms, community hall, crèches and Montessori schools. Several traders - including Centra, Paddy Power, Clongriffin Pharmacy, Carry Out, and Brown's Barbers - are already open for business.
Most of the shops are on the ground floor of mainly five-storey apartment blocks that vary in height, style and finish along the principal spine route connecting Malahide Road to Station Square.
Small local parks and squares are laced throughout the different character areas of the town and, along the western edge, the 22-hectare Fr Collins Park is marked by towering wind turbines that will provide part of the energy needs of the new town. The park will have a children's play ground, a boating lake, running track and 17 pitches.
So far almost 50 per cent of the town has been constructed and occupied with another 250 homes due for completion this summer. With its broad range of shopping, entertainment and social facilities - as well as its parking and Dart link to the city centre - Clongriffin seems set to become the commercial centre for a large number of housing developments ranging from Clarehall Hall and Belmayne on the Malahide Road to the The Coast being developed by Seamus Ross's Menolly Homes on the former Baldoyle Racecourse.
Sean Mulryan's Ballymore group has also retained a large part of the old racecourse for a development of large family homes aimed at the top end of the market. In all about 5,500 homes are planned for areas within striking distance of Clongriffin.
