Sunday 21 January 2007

Expansion of Blanchardstown Shopping Centre - More Traffic Chaos?

Neil Callanan writing in the Sunday Business Post tells us of how one of the biggest shopping centres in the country will be significantly expanded in a €250 million investment.

Shops, offices, restaurants, apartments and leisure facilities are to be built at Blanchardstown Town Centre in west Dublin.

The investment is in addition to €100 million being spent by Green Property on a new fashion retail park, multi-storey car park, hotel and apartments. The centre will increase in size by 50,000 square metres - almost 50 per cent.

The company’s development director, Paul Culhane, said the company, which is worth about €1.25 billion, was planning to expand substantially.

‘'We’re looking for opportunities and we have the capacity to do another Blanchardstown town centre-type scheme,” he said.

Culhane said the company would make acquisitions in Britain and Ireland.

‘‘We closed two deals in Britain before Christmas and are currently looking at two more,” Culhane said. ‘‘We hope to have five to six deals there completed by year end.”

Green Property has bought a seven-acre office park in the south-east of England at Weybridge, Surrey, in a joint venture with private clients of Anglo Irish Bank.

The company has also bought a building on Grafton Street off Bond Street, London, which it plans to convert into offices and apartments.

He said the company was looking at site purchases in Ireland and was interested in talking to potential joint venture partners with underdeveloped sites.

Culhane said the company was concentrating on office, retail and industrial developments.

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