Plans for a major €140 million extension and makeover for a Galway shopping centre are facing objections from traders in the complex.
The developer of the Galway Shopping Centre on the Headford Road have been ordered to completely redesign the main gateway building and reduce the size of the overall development.
The proposals for the new complex include new anchor units for Marks and Spencer and Debenhams to join Tesco and Penneys, along with more than 90 smaller retail units, a leisure centre, more than 220 apartments and nearly 2,000 parking spaces in four multi-storey blocks.
City planning officials have requested that Harcourt Developments, which owns the shopping centre and made the planning application under the name of a company called Lindat Ltd, submit additional information.
They have ordered a complete redesign of the six-storey gateway building facing on to the Headford Road roundabout which features a municipal art gallery.
"The proposed building is located at a significant road junction and at an entrance point to the centre of the city. In this regard and in view of its civic importance, a building design of individual significance is required," the planners' report states.
"The proposed design does not satisfy this criterion."
Meanwhile, objections have also been lodged by several traders who argue that the development would be excessive and would hit them financially during construction.
Part of the existing centre, which was built in 1972, will have to be demolished under the 13-acre development project which is expected to take up to five years to complete.
The proposed new centre will be more than four times the size of the existing centre and be based in blocks around a new public street.
