Liffey Valley

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is a shopping centre located in Clondalkin, Dublin, Ireland. The centre opened on 14 October 1998 (1998-10-14) and is located near the junction of the M50 motorway and N4 road closely surrounded by Lucan to the west, Palmerstown Village to the east and Clondalkin to the south. The centre was a scaled-down replacement for a much larger complex once mooted for the site, known as Quarryvale, the development of which was highly controversial. After over a decade without major development, the centre was extended in 2016.

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre
LocationClondalkin, Dublin 22
Coordinates53°21′12″N 6°23′32″W
Address22 Fonthill Road,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22
Opening date14 October 1998 (1998-10-14)[1]
Websitewww.liffeyvalley.ie

Tenants

Anchor tenants at the centre are Ireland's largest Marks & Spencer, Dunnes Stores, Next, and Ireland's largest Boots. In 2010 large H&M and New Look fashions stores opened in the centre of the mall. The centre is home to Vue Dublin cinemas (formerly Ster Century Dublin). One of the anchor tenants at the time of opening was Ireland's only branch of C&A, which closed when the parent firm exited the UK market. This unit was taken by Dunnes Stores.

An associated retail park, The Retail Park, Liffey Valley, is nearby, with several warehouse-style stores.

Renovations
The front promenade of Liffey Valley post-renovation.

In February 2015, Liffey Valley announced that it was to begin a €26 million expansion of the shopping centre.[2] The expansion had brought six new restaurants to the shopping centre including Prezzo and TGI Fridays.[3] As well as expanding the Vue cinema and building a new Penneys which opened on 6 December 2016. Tesco opened in the summer of 2018.[4] and was expected to create 450 new jobs.[4]

The construction of the Penneys Store marked the first new store opening in a decade, leading the branch at Liffey Valley to be more modernized, incorporating an Insomnia cafe within the confines of the shop. The general extensions at Liffey Valley attracted significant media interest,[5] and have rejuvenated the local economy. Further extensions were refused planning permission by An Bord Pleanala as they would be detrimental to traffic congestion.[6]

In April 2020 property group Hines submitted a €135 million plan for a major extension to the Liffey Valley Centre in Dublin. The mixed leisure, entertainment and retail extension will include a large public plaza, and creating a new east-west street at the centre. There will also be two large retail units to either side of the plaza.[7]

Transport

Liffey Valley is served by Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland routes 25, 25a, 25b, 25x, 26, 40, 51d, 66, 66a, 66b, 66x, 67, 67x, 76, 76a, 239

Planning impropriety

For two decades an actual "town centre" had been planned in a central location to serve the Lucan, Clondalkin and Palmerstown areas. But Liffey Valley was built to the northeastern extremity of the area it was originally planned to serve. This meant, as noted by Jerry Barnes, chairman of the Royal Town Planning Institute, that the residents of Lucan, Clondalkin and Palmerstown "have been left for 20 years without an appropriately centrally located town centre which is easily accessible to all. This has very serious long-term implications for thousands of people".[8]

Thirty Dublin councillors were investigated by the Mahon Tribunal over allegations about accepting bribes relating to the rezoning of land in Quarryvale. Seán Ardagh was named in the tribunal's report as having received contributions from lobbyist Frank Dunlop and developer Owen O’Callaghan, and the report names other councillors as "hopelessly compromised" due to their associations with the project.[9]

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References
  1. "Designer shops pay top rents in Liffey Valley shopping centre". Irish Times. 23 September 1998.
  2. "We Are Expanding". Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
  3. "Restaurants and Facilities". Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
  4. "Liffey Valley shopping centre to undergo expansion". Irish Times. 24 February 2015.
  5. http://www.dailyedge.ie/new-penneys-liffey-valley-3122320-Dec2016/
  6. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/planning-refused-for-extension-to-liffey-valley-centre-1.2971525
  7. Deegan, Gordon. "Hines lodges €135m expansion plan for Liffey Valley". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  8. McDonald, Frank (27 March 2012). "Terrible legacy of corrupt Quarryvale rezoning". The Irish Times.
  9. Wade, Jennifer (22 March 2012). "Mahon: The verdict on councillors involved in Quarryvale". TheJournal.ie.

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