Hines lodges €135m expansion plan for Liffey Valley

Property group Hines has lodged a €135 million plan for a major extension to the Liffey Valley Centre in Dublin.

According to the consultant for the developer, the mixed leisure, entertainment and retail extension will be centred around a large public plaza, and creating a new east-west street at the centre. The proposed extension is to be anchored by two large retail units to either side of the plaza.

A retail impact assessment lodged with the planning application states that the planned extension will deliver an additional €128.65 million in retail revenues for Liffey Valley by 2025.

The report says that, by 2025, the shopping centre will produce annual retail revenues of €462.56 million compared to a pre-Covid-19 estimate for 2020 of €317.7 million.

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The planning application was lodged after the Government announced plans for the first wave of measures in response to coronavirus last month.

Hines manages the centre for its German pension fund owner, Bayerische Versorgungskammer, which purchased the centre and adjacent land in 2016 for more than €630 million.

Documentation lodged with the application says Liffey Valley’s current owners have invested €26 million to date to “deliver improvements to the customer experience, service facilities and the public realm”. A further €38 million in spending is earmarked for extensions to the existing centre and car park upgrades as well as the €135 million investment envisaged in the proposed development of the centre.

Avison Young, the consultants, state that the application "will not only deliver significant improvements to the offer and operation of the Liffey Valley Centre, it will also completely alter the role of the centre by providing a focal point for the community and greatly enhance the visitor experience".

They also argue that it would move towards redefining Liffey Valley as a tourist destination.

The plan involves a two-storey commercial extension comprising over 46,783sq m (503,568sq ft) of space.

An Bord Pleanála rejected plans for a previous major extension plan in February 2017 due mainly to the impact the proposal would have on the strategic and local road network.

The rejected 2017 application included an ice-rink arena. That is not part of the new scheme while the number of car-parking spaces has been reduced from 1,820 spaces to 855 spaces while the number of bike spaces has risen from 180 to 590.