Kildare Village will have a total of 58 stores covering 11,000 sq m of retail, with 850 car parking spaces, a bespoke Village Reception and tourist facilities to promote the centre and the region. There will also be a restaurant and café and a childrens' play area. Other amenities, too, are planned to enhance the shopping experience and encourage shoppers to spend the full day in the new centre.

The development is strategically situated, about 30 minutes drive from Dublin if traffic conditions are favourable, on the motorway that carries over 9.4 million cars and coaches past the centre every year. It's the main tourist link between Dublin and the South West.

The centre expects to draw its customers from the 2.5 million people who live within a two-hour drive of Kildare and from the 6.8 million international tourists who visit the Republic annually. Kildare is also easily reached by a half-hourly train service from Dublin.

A number of existing prime tourist sites are close to the new centre, including the Curragh; three racecourses in the vicinity; the Irish National Stud and the Japanese Gardens, which are close to Kildare town.

Frank Blanchette, Value Retail's group retail and marketing director, says that the new Kildare Village will have a strong synergy with Bicester Village, which he describes as arguably Europe's most successful outlet mall. He adds: "Kildare Village will also benefit from a unique operating model, environment, brand mix and positioning."

The imagery and design of the centre are based on the region's stud farms and thoroughbred horse breeding industry. Animated facades, varied roofscapes and rich landscaping, all contained in an open air mall, are designed to provide customers with an engaging shopping experience.

Value Retail is currently finalising the roles and positions of the retail, marketing and operations team of Kildare Village, so names can't be disclosed yet. But Blanchette says that the origins and roots of the team will come from fashion brand retailing and marketing. The centre will employ 250 full-time staff and 150 part-timers. The first job fair to recruit staff for the new centre was held in Newbridge, Co Kildare, recently and attracted far more applicants than there were jobs.

The new centre is being marketed through a number of media, including the Shopaholics Guide and the 2006 Irish Blue Book, which features premium hotels and tourist attractions. It's being marketed across the group of Value Retail outlet shopping villages and through tour operators in China, India, the Middle East and Russia.

Blanchette is convinced there's already a strong public appetite in Ireland for this type of shopping: "Last year, over 0.5 million Irish residents travelled to the US, many to shop at the outlet centres in New York, Boston and Orlando. This has helped foster a thorough understanding of high quality outlet shopping and a genuine appetite for high quality retail. We believe that Kildare Village will offer the same for both the brands and the customers it will serve."

He adds that for contractual reasons, he can't release the names of brands that have signed commercial agreements. Nor can he divulge any commercial terms of these agreements. However, The Irish Times stated recently that the centre's retailers will be headed up by Levi and Nike, while other noted retail names there will include Clark's Shoes, Karen Millen, Le Creuset, Molton Brown and Starbucks, according to the newspaper.

The Republic has two other existing outlet centres, one in Rathdowney, Co Laois, the other in Killarney. So far, Rathdowney, Co Laois, has failed to make a significant impact, while Killarney has been struggling since it opened. The Ballymac centre in Dundalk is due to open in the middle of next year, while The Outlet in Banbridge, Co Down, is already under construction.

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