Department store group Arnotts is spending up to €100 million on the purchase of retail units and other buildings in the immediate vicinity of its landmark outlet on Dublin's Henry Street.
The ongoing round of acquisitions and purchase of options to buy property will add about two acres to the company's holdings in the area as it finalises a planning application for a significant new "urban shopping" zone in the north city centre.
Central to the proposal is a plan for a new street linking Middle Abbey Street with Henry Street at an unspecified location about midway between O'Connell Street and Liffey Street.
Adjacent to the red Luas line, the new shopping zone will encompass the former Independent Newspapers building on Middle Abbey Street among several other properties that Arnotts has acquired in the past year.
With building costs estimated in the region of €200-€300 million, the project could take up to seven years to complete.
It is unclear how Arnotts proposes to finance the initiative, although it is considered likely to seek a mixture of bank debt and support from strategic partners in the property business.
"There are some strategic partners in there but we are in charge, we control it," said Arnotts chairman Richard Nesbitt SC, who led the consortium that took the group private for €255 million in 2003.
"They're all like-minded, with experience."
The company wants to redevelop its own store on essentially the same four-acre footprint that it currently occupies, with parking underground.
In addition, it wants to create several other large-format units that will occupy most of the space between the GPO complex, Middle Abbey Street, Liffey Street and Henry Street.
The objective will be to appeal to big international fashion retailers, who have made it clear that the units available in the Grafton Street area are too small for their purposes.
Mr Nesbitt said that the company had not decided whether it would sell or lease such units, or operate them as strategic partnerships with other retailers.
He believes that a planning application to Dublin City Council could be lodged before Christmas, or early next year.
Arnotts signalled its intentions last year when it spent some €26 million acquiring the former Independent Newspapers building.
It is following that deal with the purchase, not yet complete, of several other buildings that front onto Middle Abbey Street.
Most recently, it spent €13-€15 million on the building currently occupied by the Chapters bookstore on Middle Abbey Street between Arnotts and Liffey Street.
It has also bought or acquired options to buy buildings on the street between Arnotts and the former Independent Newspapers property.
Arnotts has also bought outright or acquired options on three or four buildings on Henry Street beside its own store in the direction of the GPO arcade.
It bought a unit within the arcade, which currently houses the Arnotts bargain furniture outlet.
A number of other properties have also been acquired.
