Blanchardstown Centre


The Blanchardstown Centre is one of Ireland's largest shopping centres, located in Blanchardstown, Dublin, Ireland. It opened in October 1996 and was extended in 2004 to create extra retail space. It lies in the administration of Fingal County Council.
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 motorways.
In June 2016 the centre was sold to the Blackstone Group 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 four anchor stores in the shopping centre itself are Dunnes, Penney's, Marks and Spencer, and Debenhams. Other tenants include H&M, Superdry Store, Vero Moda, Jack & Jones, River Island, JD, Topshop/Topman, BT2 and Zara. The Blanchardstown Centre is also home to Ireland's largest TK Maxx store, Lifestyle Sports 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 Shopping Park, is operated separately and features stores such as New Look, Argos, Lidl, Dealz, Nike Outlet, Heatons and Next. Harvey Norman, Smyths Toys, Currys, PC World, Waltons Music, Elvery's Sports and DFS Sofas are also located in the retail parks around the centre.
The complex includes a 9-screen cinema operated by Odeon Cinemas and a Leisureplex entertainment centre.

Non-retail developments

Other amenities located in or adjacent to the centre include the Draiocht arts centre, as well as Ireland's "largest purpose built public library".
At the time of building, Greater Blanchardstown had a population of over 120,000, and this figure was growing due to its location near the M50 and beside the M3. In the period that followed the 1996 opening of the retail spaces, additional commercial and office spaces were leased to eBay, 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 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 to the Blackstone Group by Green Property for an estimated €950m.