The opening of a 12-screen cinema and a food court on the top floor is likely to give Dublin's dated south city shopping centre a boost, writes JACK FAGAN
DUBLIN’S SOUTH inner city is to get a new entertainment venue. The top retail floor in the St Stephen’s Green shopping centre. Dublin 2, is to be converted into a food court to coincide with the opening of a new 12-screen cinema on top of the complex.
A planning application for the new omniplex facilities is to be lodged shortly by joint owners Irish Life and businessman Pierse Molony, and the expectation is that the new centre will be open for business before the end of next year.
The Anderson family is likely to be paying an initial rent of around €1 million for the cinemas which will be built on the top deck of the car park.
Lightweight building materials will be assembled off-site and lifted onto the building by crane. The Andersons have already built a cinema on top of the Swan shopping centre in Rathmines which it also owns.
Over 25 years ago, the Andersons sold the former Green Cinema to the Slazenger family, who assembled the site for the St Stephen’s Green shopping centre.
The opening of the new cinema and restaurants is likely to generate extra business for the 22-year-old complex which is in need of regeneration.
One option for the owners would be to open shops directly onto South King Street now that it has been pedestrianised to cater for increasing numbers of shoppers visiting the new Gaiety Centre, where Zara, HM and Warehouse have large stores.
The St Stephen’s Green centre has a small number of vacant shops but is continuing to attract high profile traders.
Recent arrivals include Soho Cool, a ladies fashion trader which is renting a 139sq m (1,500sq ft) shop and Trespass, an outdoor clothing specialist, which has moved into a unit of 111sq m (1,200sq ft) on the first floor.
The new cinemas will inevitably attract more evening visitors to bars and restaurants between Grafton Street and South Great George’s Street.
The area already has a vibrant night life, particularly at weekends.
The new Omniplex screen will provide competition for the huge Cineworld complexon the opposite side of the city at Parnell Street, Dublin 1, where cinema attendances are among the highest in Europe.
