Waterford's Ferrybank Shopping Centre impasse broken as Dunnes Stores seeks planning permission
Ferrybank Shopping Centre. A planning notice was erected at the shopping centre by Dunnes Stores on Friday, June 27.
The first clear signal that the long-idle Ferrybank Shopping Centre is to finally be occupied looks more certain this week as major supermarket chain Dunnes Stores erected a planning notice at the site.
The planning notice, erected at the shopping centre on Friday, June 27, was visible to curious passersby.
It stated: "Better Value Unlimited Company intend to apply for permission for development at this site situated at Ferrybank Shopping Centre, Ross Road, Ferrybank, Co. Kilkenny."
The development consists of the change of use and amalgamation of the centre's unoccupied car showroom and adjacent fire service corridor with the centre's permitted retail anchor unit at ground floor level to form a single level anchor unit above basement car park levels.
The reconfigured anchor unit will have 3,000 sqm of convenience floorspace, including an ancillary off-licence, and 2,042 sqm of comparison floorspace.
Access to the anchor unit will be from the ground floor shopping mall and the central pedestrian street of the shopping centre.
Retail and leisure are part of the new vision for the shopping centre on the border of Waterford and Kilkenny.
The first floor of the retail anchor unit, approved for the sale of comparison goods, will be repurposed into a separate leisure unit (with change of use cited in the application notice as from retail to leisure use).
Access to this unit will be from the first floor mall level of the shopping centre.
The development will also include new anchor store elevation signage.
The planning notice was signed by Patrick O'Neill on behalf of Better Value Unlimited, 46-50 South Great George's Street, Dublin 2 - the head office of Dunnes Stores.
The Ferrybank Shopping Centre has lain idle for well over a decade, having been constructed during the boom years of the Celtic Tiger, completed in 2008 as that period of apparent prosperity came to a dramatic end with the economic crash that was experienced worldwide.
