Economy

Naas Shopping Centre owners submit pre-planning application to council

Number of large repair and maintenance projects completed in recent weeks

Frank O’Rourke, project manager for the Naas Shopping Centre, and Ger Roche, chief executive of the Roche Group. Photograph: Lorraine O’Sullivan

Sat May 1 2021 - 06:30

The owners of a boom-era shopping centre in Co Kildare have submitted a pre-planning application to Kildare County Council.

Roche Group says the project at the Naas shopping centre in the town is on track with its original timelines to complete and fit out the site by 2022 after the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) sold the building to the business last year.

A number of large repair and maintenance projects have been completed in recent weeks to fix fire damage, secure the site and deep clean the building to ready it for the next phase of fitting out for prospective tenants.

The company says there is interest in the development from major retail brands and that talks are under way with a number of these.

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It is expected the development will consist of a range of mixed-use occupiers ranging from retail outlets, with a supermarket anchor on the ground floor.

It will also house mixed healthcare, office and educational uses on the upper floors with about 70 apartment units for senior living while planning permission has been secured for 750 car parking spaces.

850 jobs

Development works are expected to cost in the region of €10 million and will employ 150 construction workers at its peak.

At least 700 jobs are expected to be created once opened and the next stage will see the completion of building work and the significant fitting out of the four-acre site.

The multimillion euro shopping centre was constructed in the town centre and developed by building company Marshalsea. It was originally scheduled to open in Christmas 2009 but never did. It became a Nama managed property and receiver Duff & Phelps was appointed to find a buyer.

It went on sale with a guide price of €4.8 million in 2019 and was bought last year by the Roche Group. The guide price was a fraction of the construction cost.

The Roche Group is owned by Ger Roche and his family, who also operate the Vista centre and pharmacy on Ballymore Road, Naas.

The project team is led by Ger Roche, Eoin Roche and project manager Frank O'Rourke, a former Fianna Fáil TD in Kildare North.

It is expected that the wage bill as a result of the completed development will be at least €20 million per year, which will be made up from full and part-time jobs in retail, educational, healthcare and office work as well as security, management and maintenance.

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