O'Reilly bought the centre, on the Main Street in Dundrum, in 1999 for the equivalent of E18m. He won consent three years ago to redevelop the site with three department stores, a convenience food store,76 other retail units and a number of restaurants and cafés. Now he has lodged a revised application for an anchor store of 9,500 sq m, and a convenience store plus several restaurants. The residential element of the scheme has been significantly increased.

More new retail space at Dundrum will be bad news for the St Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin city centre, which has already suffered badly from the opening of Dundrum.

As many as 10 leases are currently for sale in the Stephen's Green Centre at the top of Grafton Street, as traders have been hit by what they call unsustainably high rents and falling footfall.

Rents in the centre have increased by up to 90 per cent over the past two years although tenants' association chairman Brian Mangan said that business isn't good in the centre and that quite a few retailers are keen to move out.

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