Billionaire businessman Albert Gubay has moved quickly to redevelop the former Total Fitness gym at Clarehall, north Dublin. The operator of the three Total Fitness gyms in Dublin, Centre Operators, went into liquidation earlier this year, leaving its members to take a huge financial hit.

German retailer Lidl is understood to have made an approach to buy land at the gyms from Gubay’s company, Mardown. Mardown applied on February 28th to have the number of car-parking spaces at the Clarehall gym reduced from 292 to 156 and retail sources estimate that a Lidl supermarket in Dublin could be built on a site that is the equivalent of 115 car-parking spaces.

Around the Blockhas also learned that, over a number of years, the German retailer had made approaches to Mardown seeking to buy part of its Total Fitness car park in Castleknock.

Mardown said the Clarehall spaces had been fenced off for a number of years and are “superfluous to the needs of the centre”. Mardown has since lodged a new planning application, seeking to redevelop the existing gym. It plans to open two new retail units on the ground floor, develop a new medical centre, and open a restaurant and gym on the first floor of the building.

It again leaves open the possible redevelopment of part of the car park for a discount foodstore by seeking to reduce the number of car-parking spaces, this time by more than 130.