Developers to go ahead with massive ‘Dundrum-style’ centre

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Two well-known international property developers from Galway are set to proceed with plans for a massive ‘Dundrum Town Centre’ type development, after buying nearly 30 properties in Eyre Square, the Galway City Tribune can reveal.

Brothers Luke and Brian Comer – who are originally from Glenamaddy – are fronting the consortium that purchased most of the eastern side of Eyre Square this week for just under €14 million.

The four-acre site will be ‘mothballed’ for the time being, but a source close to the Comers confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that they will proceed with plans for a development along the lines of Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin.

There was significant interest from international investors in purchasing the site, according to Aidan Gavin of DTZ Sherry Fitzgerald, who handled the sale.

The ‘Odeon’ site – which includes properties on the Square, Prospect Hill, Forster Street and St Patrick’s Avenue and stretches back towards St Patrick’s Church – would create hundreds of jobs during the construction phase and in the proposed retail units.

Properties purchased include Odeon House, O’Connell’s Bar, Murty Rabbitt’s, An Púcán, the former Mulryan Auctioneers office and a row of houses on St Patrick’s Road.

The consortium has already looked at the long-term plans for the site and is expected to further increase its property portfolio around the site.

The 500,000 square foot development will feature a major fashion retailer as an anchor, as well as around 60 other retail units, along with offices and residential units.

It would cost around €100m to build and take two years to construct, employing hundreds of workers. The Comer Group source said: “The site will see no significant changes in the immediate future, until there is some sign of a market recovery, and it would take around two years to build.

“The big-name retailers are crying out for large open spaces, and the site has been purchased at the bottom of the market. It’s a viable project,” he said.

The properties had been owned by the so-called ‘Odeon Syndicate’ – which comprised developers Michael Burke, Tom Considine, Peter Gilhooley and Walter King – which spent 12 years putting the portfolio together at a cost of around €100m.

However, the former Bank of Scotland (Ireland) appointed a receiver to the syndicate’s assets, and their portfolio was snapped up by the Comer consortium.

Read more in today’s Galway City Tribune