Planning permission’s been applied for development at the Ferrybank Shopping Centre.
The future of the site has long been talked about having been pretty much vacant since it was built in 2008 housing just the local library and area office for Kilkenny County Council.
Dunnes Stores however was a couple of years ago confirmed as the anchor tenant and today (Tuesday, 1st July) Better Value Limited has submitted an application to Kilkenny’s local authority seeking “To change the use and amalgamation of the centre’s unoccupied car showroom and adjacent fire service corridor with the centre’s permitted retail anchor unit at ground floor level to form a new single level anchor unit above basement car park levels”.
It would mean the anchor unit would have 3,000sqm of convenience floorspace, which will include ancillary off-licence, and 2,042sqm of comparison floorspace, with the remainder of the 7,558sqm gross floor area to include the basement and ground floor levels.
The proposal also notes “Access to the anchor unit will be from the ground floor shopping mall and the central pedestrian street of the shopping centre. The first floor of the retail anchor unit, approved for the sale of comparison goods, will be repurposed into a separate leisure unit measuring c.3,140 sqm (change of use from retail to leisure use). Access to this unit will be from the first floor mall level of the shopping centre. The development includes for all other associated site development works required to complete the development, including new anchor store elevation signage.”
Submissions will be accepted until the 4th of August with a decision due on the 25th of August.