Wicklow County Council has approved planning permission for a large-scale town centre development at Charlesland, on the outskirts of Greystones.
The commercial and residential development, which includes a strikingly designed district shopping centre, is located on a 100-acre site beside the existing Charlesland development of almost 1,500 new homes.
Included in the scheme are 20,000sq m of shops, 26,000sq m of offices, 16,000sq m of retail warehousing, 11,500sq m of motor showrooms, an enterprise centre, light industrial units and 260 new homes.
The scheme also includes a new Garda station, a five-acre site earmarked for two new schools, and a creche for 150 children. The site benefits from dual-carriageway access to the N11, but an earlier proposal that a Dart station be built nearby has not been included.
Both the existing Charlesland estate and the new town centre have been developed by Zapi Ltd - a property company controlled by Sean Dunne of Mountbrook Homes and Sean Mulryan of Ballymore.
Speaking at a "Wicklow Showcase" on industrial development in Wicklow at the weekend, Mr Dunne said Zapi would also contribute €3.5 million towards the development of a new community centre and swimming pool which are being built on land adjacent to Charlesland. Zapi is also to donate €100,000 towards the development of a Greystones heritage centre and €500,000 towards the cost of a recycling facility. About one-third of the enterprise centre is to be given to the local chamber of commerce.
Drawing attention to the flyingsaucer-shaped roof of the shopping centre, Mr Dunne compared it to the new roof proposed for Dublin's Clarence Hotel, and joked he would be talking to U2, owners of the Clarence, about the ownership of the design.
Mr Dunne told The Irish Times that he was very pleased with the range of facilities and sports clubs being built around the Charlesland development.
In his address to the seminar, Mr Dunne said it was not always understood that planning legislation was enacted to promote employment and development and "not to restrict it".
He commended Wicklow as a place where property developers could do business, pointing out that the planning process for his district centre had taken less than six months.
He compared the experience favourably to that of building a 434-unit housing development in Athy, Co Kildare, where he said planning permission took 22 months to achieve.
Commenting on the proposed town centre development, the leas cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Derek Mitchell, said the provision of jobs in the centre would reduce the number of those who commuted by car to Dublin each day.
Mr Mitchell said he would urge the developers to "urgently hand over the school site so that building can start in order to avoid an educational crisis in September 2008".
He also welcomed the enterprise centre, commenting that he knew of "many local businesses which cannot get space in Greystones".
