Blanchardstown Shopping Centre - geograph

The Blanchardstown Centre is one of Ireland's largest shopping centres, located in

Blanchardstown Blanchardstown () is a large outer suburb of Dublin in the modern county of Fingal, Ireland. Located northwest of Dublin city centre, it has developed since the 1960s from a small village to a point where Greater Blanchardstown is the largest u ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. It opened in October 1996 and was extended in 2004 to create extra retail space. It lies in the administration of

Fingal County Council Fingal County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the authority responsible for local government in the county of Fingal, Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its aboli ...

. The Blanchardstown Centre is served by over 600 bus movements per day, and is close to Dublin's M50 radial motorway, and adjacent to the M3 motorway. In June 2016 the centre was sold to

the Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate b ...

by Green Property for an estimated €950m.

Stores

The centre contains over 180 stores, including banking outlets and dining facilities, three retail parks and 7,000 free car parking spaces. The

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wi ...

s in the shopping centre itself include Dunnes, Penney's, and

Marks and Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

. A former anchor,

Debenhams Ireland Debenhams Ireland was a national chain of department stores in Ireland, that was owned ultimately by Debenhams plc. It was largely based on the former Roches Store chain, though after that business divested its grocery units. History Roches S ...

, was closed in April 2020, however Flannels has since replaced Debenhams, which is due to open in late 2022. Other tenants include H&M, Superdry Store, Vero Moda,

Jack & Jones Bestseller A/S is a privately held family-owned clothing and accessories company founded in Denmark in 1975. The company provides affordable fashion for women, men and children. They market their products in 70 markets across most of Europe, th ...

River Island River Island is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores and online. Best known for its trend focused womenswear offering, River Isl ...

, JD, BT2 and Zara. The Blanchardstown Centre is also home to Ireland's largest

TK Maxx TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, ...

store,

Lifestyle Sports Life Style Sports, officially Lifestyle Sports (Ireland) Limited is Ireland's largest sports retailer, operating 46 outlets spread across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. They stock sporting goods and sport fashions. History Lif ...

and 53 Degrees North, all of which are located in the "fashion park". Surrounding the centre are three retail parks, two of which are part of the centre, whilst the other, WestEnd Retail Park, is operated separately and features stores such as New Look, Argos,

Lidl Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (; ) is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 11,000 stores across Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, whi ...

Dealz Dealz is a chain of discount retail stores predominantly in Ireland, Spain and Poland, offering a range of general merchandise products, the majority of which are at the fixed price of €1.50 (in Ireland and Spain); £1.20; or zl 6.- ...

, Nike Outlet, Heatons and

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

Harvey Norman Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based, multi-national retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned ...

Smyths Toys Smyths Toys Superstores is an Irish multinational chain provider of children's toys and entertainment products with over 200 shops throughout Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and France. The business is owned by the S ...

Currys PC World Currys (branded as Currys PC World between 2010 and 2021) is an electrical retailer and aftercare service provider operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, specialising in white goods, consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones. E ...

, Waltons Music, Elvery's Sports and DFS are also located in the retail parks around the centre. The complex includes a 9-screen cinema operated by

Odeon Cinemas Odeon, stylised as ODEON, is a cinema brand name operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway, which along with UCI Cinemas and Nordic Cinema Group is part of the Odeon Cinemas Group subsidiary of AMC Theatres. It uses the famous name ...

and a Leisureplex entertainment centre.

Non-retail developments

Other amenities located in or adjacent to the centre include the Draíocht arts centre, as well as Ireland's "largest purpose built public library". At the time of building, the greater Blanchardstown area had a population of over 120,000. In the period that followed the 1996 opening of the retail spaces, additional commercial and office spaces were leased to

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

, Fingal County Council and Liberty Insurance - who relocated their headquarters to the site, bringing "over 1,300 staff to the area daily". The

Crowne Plaza Crowne Plaza is a British multinational chain of full service, upscale hotels headquartered in the United Kingdom. It caters to business travelers and the meetings and conventions market. It forms part of the InterContinental Hotels Group family ...

hotel chain also built a four-star 200-bedroom hotel within the development in 2008.

Plans

From early 2009, plans had been published which set to extend the centre by with a new "Yellow Mall" extension. These plans included a three-storey complex with a new anchor store, 17 new shops and a food court located on the second floor, as well as a two-storey underground carpark. These plans proposed eight new restaurants for the exterior. As of January 2016, when the centre was put up for sale, these plans had not been executed. In June 2016, the centre was sold (together with this planning approval) to

by Green Property for an estimated €950m.

References

External links

* {{Dublin 15 Shopping centres in County Dublin Shopping malls established in 1996 Blanchardstown Buildings and structures in Fingal