A £20 million (€25 million) factory outlet shopping village planned for Goffs at Kill, Co Kildare, has been abandoned following a decision yesterday by An Bord Pleanala to refuse planning permission, mainly on the grounds of inadequate road access. Fashion shops in Dublin and Naas feared that the project would have a damaging effect on their businesses. The "tourist village" planned to sell major international brands at hugely discounted prices.
Value Retail, an Anglo-US company which has spent three years planning the development, said last night that it was "extremely disappointed" by the planning decision as it felt it had fulfilled every obligation sought by the planning authorities.
The company said it would take some time to consider its next option. It believed the decision would deprive the people of Kildare and Ireland as a whole of a "fantastic tourism attraction" which would have brought millions of pounds a year into the economy, according to a spokesman.
An Taisce and Naas retailers objected to a decision by Kildare County Council to grant permission for the retail complex, which was to have had 48 shops with a total area of almost 86,000 sq ft.
The village was to have been built along the N7, the Naas dualcarriageway, but, according to the planning appeals board, it would have created a traffic hazard along a busy section of the road where a special speed limit of 50 miles an hour applies.
The board also said the access route to the underpass on the southern side of the road was substandard and that the development would prejudice proposals to improve the road network at this location.
Value Retail is likely to take comfort from the grounds that the poor road network rather than the principle of setting up a new-style, low-priced retail complex was the cause of the refusal. With the N7 due to be upgraded in the next few years, it will leave the way open for the promoters to make another planning application in due course.
Factory outlet shopping has been one of the fastest growing sectors of the retail business in Britain and the US in recent years.
The concept has broad appeal because of the huge discounts available for out-of-season and end-of-line merchandise. The Kill factory outlet would not have been the first of its kind in Ireland. Last summer, Green Property opened a similar outlet in Killarney, Co Kerry, with more than 70 shops. Since then, Louth Co Council has refused planning permission for an almost identical scheme close to the Border near Ballymascanlon, Dundalk.
Value Retail is understood to have paid Goffs around £2 million in 1997 for the 10-acre site earmarked for the retail village. With the site now rezoned for commercial use, its value has greatly appreciated. Value Retail may decide to retain it until the road network in the area has been improved to allow it to be developed.
The site is within 16 miles of Dublin and was expected to attract mainly Dublin shoppers. Had it gone ahead, it could have had serious implications for The Square in Tallaght, Blanchardstown Town Centre and particularly Liffey Valley Shopping Centre, which is still trading below expectations.
Value Retail had been advised by Mr Padraig O hUiginn, former secretary-general at the Department of the Taoiseach and a director of Bord Failte.
Estate agents Druker Fanning & Partners are also advising Value Retail.
