Liffey Valley
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| Ionad Siopadóireachta Ghleann na Life | |
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| Location | Clondalkin, Dublin |
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| Coordinates | 53°21′12″N 6°23′32″W / 53.35333°N 6.39222°W |
| Address | Fonthill Road, Clondalkin, Dublin 22 |
| Opening date | October 14, 1998[1] |
| Website | www |
Liffey Valley Shopping Centre is a shopping centre located in Clondalkin in Dublin. The centre opened on October 14, 1998 and the centre is located at the junction of the M50 motorway and N4 road. The centre was a replacement for a much larger complex mooted for the site, known as Quarryvale.
Anchor 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 (formerly Ster Century Dublin). Cafés serving coffee and snacks include Bagel Bar, Bagel Factory, BB's, Cafe Revive, Costa Coffee, O'Briens and Starbucks. There are four restaurants that offer a full service option: Eddie Rockets, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Nando's and Spur Steakhouse. A foodcourt accessed at the center of the mall provides a wide selection of fast food, including Abrakebabra, Burger King, Café Kylemore, Ginzeng, Harry Ramsden, KFC and McDonalds. Juice, ice-cream and cupcakes are available at kiosks throughout the centre, these include Friends, Johnnie Cupcakes, Tropical Juice, Zumo Fresh Juice Bar, Gino's, Jump Juice, McDonalds and Starbucks. Mcguirks Golf recently opened a new store in Liffey Valley where Curry's PC World was formally situated.
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, including PC World, Currys, Carpet Right, Argos, also of note is B&Q and Halfords retail outlets.
In 2005 planning applications were made to further develop the site into a more all round destination. These plans include apartments and more leisure focused units located away from the main centre. The developers also had a model in the centre, showing a proposed Dublin Metro line to the south-east of the shopping centre which would have been linked to Tallaght.[citation needed]
Renovations
In February 2015, Liffey Valley announced that it was to begin a €26 million expansion of the shopping center.[2] The expansion had brought six new restaurants to the shopping center including Prezzo and TGI Fridays.[3] As well as expanding the Vue cinema and building a new Penneys which is going to open on the 6th December 2016[4] and expected to create 450 new jobs.[4]
There has not been a new Penneys opened since ten years ago so the new one at Liffey Valley will be more modernized and will even have an insomnia cafe on the top floor. The store is expecting huge numbers to attend on the opening day including over 30 bloggers.
Transport
Liffey Valley is served by Dublin Bus routes 25, 25a, 25b, 25x, 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 conurbation. 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 and Clondalkin "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”.[5]
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 tribulal's report as having recieved contributions from lobbyist Frank Dunlop and developer Owen O’Callaghan, and names other councillors as “hopelessly compromised” due to their associations with the project.[6]
References
- ^ "Designer shops pay top rents in Liffey Valley shopping centre". Irish Times. 23 September 1998.
- ^ "We Are Expanding". Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
- ^ "Restaurants and Facilities". Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
- ^ a b "Liffey Valley shopping centre to undergo expansion". Irish Times. 24 February 2015.
- ^ Frank McDonald (March 27, 2012). "Terrible legacy of corrupt Quarryvale rezoning". The Irish Times.
- ^ Jennifer Wade (March 22, 2012). "Mahon: The verdict on councillors involved in Quarryvale". TheJournal.ie.