Retail&LeisureStack A - or CHQ - is set to open next year as an indoor market for homeware and food retailers, writes Gretchen Friemann

After 15 years of countless abortive development plans, the 19th century warehouse in Dublin's docklands is finally set to open next year as an indoor market for homeware and food retailers.

CHQ, or Stack A as it used to be known, was supposed to have been unveiled in early 2006 as a hotel and entertainment centre.

But three weeks ago publican Hugh O'Regan, who had rented 60 per cent of the vast three-storey warehouse, ditched the scheme leaving the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) to devise yet another development plan for what is regarded by many in the property industry as a white elephant.

The organisation's board has now seized upon what it hopes will be the final concept for CHQ and claims the building will be "fully functional" some time during 2006.

However, the details for what the DDDA has planned for the former warehouse remain sketchy.

According to Ms Loretta Lambkin, the DDDA's marketing director, the retail focus at CHQ will be on the "immersion of the senses" with the main traders selected from the food and homeware sectors.

But she also indicated there may be a music element to the scheme. "At this stage all I can say is that we are looking at how to indulge the senses, how we can stimulate sight, smell and sound."

Ms Lambkin said high-end retailers would probably not be trading from the building, "as they are catered for in the city centre and at Dundrum, but there are plenty of medium and niche market retailers that could operate well from here".

While she was unable to be specific about what exactly CHQ will be by next year, Ms Lambkin suggested it could look like an indoor market with artisan food stalls trading alongside interiors shops.

And she said an international model could be Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, which evolved from a busy marketplace to a top shopping centre and tourist destination.

CHQ has been ready for occupation since August last year and its restoration has cost the taxpayer over €30 million.

So far, there are only two tenants signed up to the scheme but Ms Lambkin said the DDDA is holding talks with a number of retailers who are "all very interested in the building".

The Ely restaurant and wine bar has reserved one unit in CHQ while the Conran Group has two units. But it's understood Sir Terence Conran will not begin any fit-out works on his first Irish restaurant until he is confident CHQ is a viable retail destination.

Ms Lambkin insisted Sir Conran was "extremely enthusiastic" about the restored CHQ but conceded that, after the departure of Mr O'Regan, he "needed some reassurance as to who the new tenants of the building would be".

The Ely restaurant, which fronts out on to the Custom House Dock area, is scheduled to open either later this year or early in 2006.

However, many property analysts are questioning whether CHQ, which was earmarked for conservation 15 years ago, can ever work as a retail centre.

Many admire the restoration of the vast rectangular warehouse with its soaring cast-iron roof and brick-vaulted basement.

But after a series of development plans for the building failed to materialise a number of property experts regard CHQ as a white elephant.

In the early 1990s, Hardwicke and British Land, developers of the International Financial Services Centre, walked away from the opportunity to develop CHQ despite having an "exclusive option" on the building.

After that it was ear-marked for financier Dermot Desmond's ecosphere project. When that idea collapsed, the DDDA decided to turn it in to a museum and the Government introduced a provision for a levy on office space in the IFSC to part-fund the venture.

That levy still stands but is inoperable since the building has never been used as a museum.

According to the DDDA, CHQ is far better suited to a retail development. A few years ago the plan was to transform the former warehouse into a high-end shopping centre with Harvey Nichols as the anchor tenant but the premier department store decided the space was unsuitable.

As the new Dundrum Town Centre began its aggressive marketing campaign, the DDDA discovered few fashion retailers were interested in the docklands site. The organisation then began to entertain the idea of CHQ as an upmarket lifestyle and interiors shopping centre but it's understood demand for this project was thin on the ground.

Late last year the publican Hugh O'Regan offered to take over the building's development, promising to install a hotel and fitness centre together with a number of bars and restaurants.

According to the DDDA, Mr O'Regan's numerous other development projects meant progress at CHQ was slow and a mutual agreement to terminate the lease was reached three weeks ago.

The indoor market concept is intended to be the end of the line for CHQ's long-running identity crisis. But there will be few surprised faces in the property industry if there is another twist to the tale.