Arnotts sheds jobs in order to facilitate "Northern Quarter" development

Arnotts has confirmed that 580 jobs are to be lost at its department store on Henry Street in Dublin, in order to facilitate the so-called “Northern Quarter” redevelopment.

The department store currently employs 950, but it states that its staff numbers will rise to 1,200 when the new development is completed.

Arnotts said it told staff of its plans at a meeting. and it is hoped most of the lay-offs will be voluntary. But the Mandate union said it expected that most would be compulsory.

Mandate says that workers were shocked at the number of job losses which Arnotts wants implemented by September.

The union said this was a sad day for Arnotts and Boyers staff, and that the projected Northern Quarter was coming at a huge cost.

Arnotts will re-locate from its current Henry Street store to the Debenhams store in the Jervis Centre later this summer.

The current Boyers store on North Earl Street will be converted to an Arnotts furniture and home store to open in August.

Construction of the €1 billion Northern Quarter - which will include shops, 175 apartments, restaurants, bars and a hotel - is expected to start later this year.

Arnotts recently unveiled its plans to "transform" the area of Dublin City Centre bounded by Henry Street, O’Connell Street, Abbey Street and Liffey Street. This city area, which will be re-branded as the Northern Quarter, will be redeveloped into a new shopping and entertainment area complete with 47 new shops, 17 new cafes, restaurants and bars, 189 apartments and a 152 bed four star hotel.

The Northern Quarter Development Proposal represents a €1 billion investment in the heart of the city. The project is currently being examined by An Bord Pleanala, having being appealed by several parties, including An Post, and the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA), however the company seems to be confident that the project will be given the green light, as layoffs have been announced at this stage.

The main aim of the plan is to recreate Prince’s Street as a shopping street, connecting the centre of O’Connell Street, through to Henry Street, with a new public square at the centre of the development. 189 apartments will be included as part of the development.

The proposal includes the provision of 47 new shops and 17 cafes, restaurants and bars. Williams Lane, connecting to Middle Abbey Street,will be re-positioned with shopping and leisure frontage and a second lane will be added from the square to create new north-south pedestrian routes from Henry Street, through the existing GPO Arcade and the northern extension of Princes’ Street, to middle Abbey Street and beyond.

A 152 bed hotel will be located in Abbey Street, and new retail and café units. Another proposal is to include the flagship Arnotts store with a new entrance onto the new public square.

Arnotts were advised by Ronan Faherty Project Director, HKR Architects, planning consultants Magill Associates and RPS Mc Hugh and has also been assisted throughout the process by Niall McFadden of Boundary Capital. Arnotts was taken private in 2003 in a management buyout by Nesbitt Acquisitions, headed by Richard Nesbitt.

First of all, the O'Connor family, which had been a stakeholder in Arnotts for 70 years, sold its share of the business for over €40m. Then, Boundary Capital, a recently listed investment company led by financier Niall McFadden, took a major stake in Arnotts. Finally, along came Anglo Irish Bank, whose property fund committed €25m for an 18 per cent stake in Arnotts. The bank has now teamed up with Boundary Capital to make a joint €65m investment in Arnotts, in return for a 46 per cent stake in the retailer. Property developer Paddy Kelly and financier Niall McFadden are also involved in the redevelopment plan.

The plan is that a holding company, Arnotts Holdings Ltd, will acquire 100 per cent of Arnotts and this will give the private clients of Anglo Irish a stake in both the retail and property sides of the Northern Quarter project. The remaining stakeholders in Arnotts Holdings Ltd will be Boundary Capital and the Nesbitt family, led by Arnotts' chairman, Richard Nesbitt. The Northern Quarter development will mean huge bank borrowings and Anglo Irish has committed itself to bankrolling the development costs of the scheme.

When the financial dispositions of the Northern Quarter scheme are completed, the stakeholders, led by the Nesbitt family, will own 80 per cent of the project. The remaining 20 per cent will be allocated to the British urban regeneration specialist Centros Miller. A source close to the project revealed that it is "more or less decided" that Centros Miller will take charge of the project's fulfilment. It's expected that a formal announcement will be made before the end of this year.

Arnotts has been steadily buying up properties around its core department store in recent years. It has bought the former Independent Newspapers offices and the Chapters bookshop on Abbey Street.

It has also bought a number of shops on Henry Street and part of the GPO Arcade which links Henry Street to Princes Street.


Sources: http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10007258.shtml

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0215/jobs.html?rss

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2006/07/16/story15759.asp

http://www.shopping-centre.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/2215/Look_north.html

Planning sought for 20-storey apartment Block in Santry

Planning permission has been requested for a massive apartment development, which includes a 20 storey high skyscraper, in Santry.
A number of objections have already been lodged against the controversial plans, which were lodged just before Christmas on December 21.
Planning permission has been sought for the demolition of a number of buildings including a pub and off-license, housing units, etc.
It is proposed that apartments and retail units will be built in their place. The development would be contained in four blocks ranging in size from three to 20 storeys in height.
According to Local Councillor Julie Carmichael, (FF), a number of residents’ associations have lodged objections.
“The Santry Environment Group and the Santry Community Group have also lodged objections to the planning application.” Cllr Carmichael stated that the plans were recently brought for pre-planning consultation with a council planning official.
The official stated that it was unlikely that the plans would be approved in their current form.
Overall, the application will contain 94 apartments in total: three one-bedroom units, 75 two-bedroom units and 16 three-bedroom units. If approved, the development will also include two restaurants, an off-license, a crèche and a pub.
It is believed that a decision on the application will be made before the end of February.

Source: http://www.dublinpeople.com/content/view/122/57/

Opponents of Rock of Cashel hotel project to appeal planning ruling

A controversial proposal to build a five-storey, 83-bedroom hotel with an underground car park beside the Rock of Cashel in Co Tipperary, is to be appealed to An Bord Pleanála following a decision by the town council to grant planning permission.

Richard O'Brien, a spokesman for the Save Our Town Park committee - a group of community activists opposed to the scheme - described the proposal as a "fiasco". He said the car park will not be able to accommodate tourist coaches, which is "incredible for a hotel proposal in a major heritage town like Cashel".

Mr O'Brien said his committee, which has attracted widespread public support, will hold a public meeting in the town later this month and appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanála. He said "there are far more suitable sites for such a hotel on the periphery of the town where a lot of suitable development land is lying idle".

The council bought the 2.8-acre plot in the centre of the south Tipperary town from the Presentation Order of nuns in Cashel, in 2001 for a price equivalent to €418,000 and then sold it on five years later for €1.9 million to CMS Developments Ltd of Clonmel, subject to planning permission for a hotel on the site.

Councillor Martin Browne (Independent) said town council "officials can only see the profit and the nuns who served Cashel very well for 200 years were short-changed and didn't get the right price for the property". He said the Presentation Order, which was leaving the town, only agreed to the sale because it was sent a letter "threatening a compulsory purchase order" and believed that the land would be used to create a town park.

Councillor Browne said "the whole thing leaves a bad taste" and hopes that An Bord Pleanála will hold an oral hearing into the matter.

Cashel Town Council has denied allegations of wrongdoing and defended the development as necessary because existing "hotels in the town can't cope with tourist numbers".


Sources:

www.buckplanning.ie