The long-awaited opening of Clerys Quarter on Dublin’s O’Connell Street will take place this week.
Swedish fashion retailer H&M is in the final stages of fitting out its new 2,787 sq ft (30,000sq ft) store at the scheme and will begin trading this Friday from the ground and first floors of the scheme following a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony, The Irish Times has learned.
Decathlon meanwhile is expected to open for business at Clerys Quarter this July. The French-headquartered sports clothing and equipment specialist agreed a deal to occupy the other half of the development’s 5,575sq m (60,000sq ft) of retail space in January following the withdrawal of UK billionaire Mike Ashley’s high-end clothing retailer Flannels.
The Clerys building restoration was largely completed last year, retaining the building’s historic features including its colonnaded facade and refurbished Clerys clock.
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The former department store’s grand staircase has also been restored to its original condition and will once again provide the centrepiece of the redeveloped scheme’s ground-floor shopping area.
Clerys’ famous tea rooms will also reopen for business as part of the overall plan for Clerys Quarter.
The preservation of these elements of the famed department store is described by the Clerys Quarter’s architects, Henry J Lyons, as a “key element” of plans for the building, the original design of which had been based on Selfridges’s flagship store, on Oxford Street in London.
Clerys Quarter is being delivered by Luxembourg-based asset manager and principal investor Europa, in conjunction with its Dublin-based minority partners Derek McGrath’s Core Capital and Paddy McKillen jnr and his business partner Matt Ryan’s Oakmount property vehicle, through a company called Oces Property Holdings.
The overall development will comprise 8,600sq m (92,600sq ft) of new grade-A office space across two buildings, 5,575sq m (60,000sq ft) of retail, a 1,670sq m (18,000 sq ft) panoramic rooftop restaurant, bar and events venue, five new food-and-beverage units, including the newly refurbished tea rooms, Pret A Manger which is already trading, and a new 213-bedroom Premier Inn hotel.
Europa Capital recently completed the sale of about one-third of the scheme’s office space to the HSE. Located to the rear of the development, the Earl Building, as it is known, is set to be transformed into an outpatient facility serving maternity, paediatric, colposcopy and perinatal mental health patients, incorporating physiotherapy and social work services as well.
Joint letting agents QRE Real Estate Advisers and CBRE are understood to be in negotiations with prospective occupiers for the remaining office space.
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