A factory outlet retail complex planned for north of Dundalk is to target shoppers from both sides of the Irish border.
A planning application for the £40 million sterling regional centre is to be lodged in the coming weeks with Louth County Council by the UK-based Sears Property Developments, working with a joint venture partner from Northern Ireland.
However, the project can only go ahead if at least 19 of the 26 members of Louth County Council vote in favour of a material contravention of the county development plan.
With a second shopping centre operating in Dundalk for the past three years, and a further retail complex planned for the Carrolls factory site in the centre of the town, there is likely to be to be strong local opposition to an out-of-town development which would be in direct competition with many local traders.
Another application for a "designer village" which would include 150,000 sq ft of retail space, a hotel, restaurant, and multiplex cinema off the Dunleer bypass has been with the planners since November, 1996.
Ireland's first retail factory outlet is being developed in Killarney by Green Property, but a further factory outlet centre planned for Goffs bloodstock sales centre at Kill, Co Kildare, is being strenuously opposed by Naas traders.
The centre proposed for Dundalk would have 200,000 sq ft of retail space to accommodate 90 shops, which would sell end-of-season designer goods direct from the manufacturer at discounted prices.
The Outlet Centre is planned for a strategically located 28-acre site adjacent to the NI and two miles north of Dundalk beside the Ballymascanlon roundabout. Roughly 50 miles from both Belfast and Dublin, the promoters say it will be ideally located to pull shoppers from a large catchment area along the highly populated east coast, including Belfast and Dublin.
They estimate that the centre could create more than 600 full and part-time jobs in Dundalk, a town which has fallen behind many other urban centres on the east coast over the past two decades.
Outlet shopping began in the USA more than 40 years ago, and is also well established in the UK, where are 24 centres currently trading and at least ten more in the pipeline.
Retail design experts Benoy are proposing a sweeping "wing shaped" open mall design for the single-level scheme, with covered walkways and a central meeting area. In addition to the stores, the Outlet Centre would have on-site catering, a children's play area and a petrol station. There would be surface-level car parking for 1,800 cars as well as a coach park.
Glyn Pritchard-Jones of Sears Property Developments said the location was both high profile and easily accessible. Shopping patterns around outlet centres elsewhwere showed that people would happily drive for 90 minutes or more to visit such schemes.
This would mean that they would attract people from a highly-populated area stretching from north of Belfast to south of Dublin.
Mr Pritchard-Jones claims that research showed that this type of retailing would complement rather than compete with Dundalk town centre, benefiting the local economy both by creating new jobs and by drawing more consumer spending into the area. He claimed that "in many cases, retail trade in a town centre increases as a result of an outlet centre nearby".
The promoters are to carry out retail, environmental and traffic impact surveys in their campaign to secure planning permission. They say that the centre could be open in time for the Millennium.
The project team comprises professional advisors from Belfast and Dublin including planning consultants URPA and quantity surveyors Bruce Shaw Partnership.
