Shop centre expansion to create 180 new jobs

Date Published: 29-Mar-2012

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Up to 180 full and part-time jobs are to be created if city planners give the green light for a state-of-the-art new 24-hour drive-thru restaurant, filling station and convenience store in Briarhill, the Galway City Tribune has learned.

And there are also plans in the pipeline for a 24-hour gym – the first one outside Dublin – in the Briarhill Shopping Centre.

It’s believed that the drive-thru will be anchored by McDonalds, while the petrol station and convenience store is likely to be operated by Topaz.

The same developer is also seeking permission for a change of use of the unused office space on the top floor of the shopping centre for usage as a gym as he has “plenty of interest”.

Developer Liam Mulryan is seeking permission to build a new €3 million single-storey development adjacent to the Briarhill Shopping Centre, which he built several years ago for €32m.

Between 50 and 60 people will be employed in the construction of the building, while a further 120 full-time jobs will be created when it is up and running.

Mr Mulryan has already signed ‘heads of agreement’ with the anchors for the new development, which he is financing mostly himself.

Asked if it was a good time to be involved in development, Mr Mulryan told the Galway City Tribune: “There’s a lot of interest in it, and tenants signed up for it, so the figures add up. If you don’t have tenants in place, you don’t get finance, it’s simple as that.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.