And Morley's retail fund manager Chris Paterson says this down-to-earth approach has continued, with asset management focusing on maintaining the centre's strong mid-market positioning. Next and New Look both upsized in 2004 and last year New Look chose Liffey Valley for its Irish flagship store. Now, Dunnes Stores has lodged a planning application to treble the size of its store to 8,360 sq m which will allow it to carry its full non-food offer.

"Structurally, Liffey Valley is simple," says Greenwood. "It has fresh, clean décor and it provides stress-free shopping."

Paterson believes this approach has allowed Liffey to shrug off competition from Dundrum. "Dundrum caused a blip in footfall, but now the figures are ahead of where they were before Dundrum opened," he says. And Greenwood points out: "We are very much a mid-market offer while Dundrum has gone for the high end. Where we have tenant overlap the retailers say their Liffey store is the better performer."

Free parking has been a big element of this strategy to differentiate Liffey from Dundrum, where shoppers have to pay to park. Paterson says there are no plans to change this. "Our retailers know we're going to continue to attract the consumers," he says.

Every year the entire Dundrum team holds a brainstorming session to set targets for the coming year and to devise a strategy to achieve them. One of this year's priorities is to improve the catering offer.

Burger King and O'Briens have taken units in the food court and Marks & Spencer opened a Café Revive on the centre's ground floor. Now Starbucks is fitting out a unit, and Paterson says the aim is to put more catering into the mall itself, with joint agents Hamilton Osborne King and Strutt & Parker tasked with identifying quality catering operators that could add to the mix.

"Fundamentally our approach is about refreshing the centre," says Paterson. "You shouldn't stray too far from a game plan that's proven to be highly successful."

Now, plans are being drawn up for a second phase of Liffey Valley. According to Greenwood two initiatives in particular convinced the owners that there was potential for more development. "It's significant that we got designations as a town centre, and the commitment under Dublin's E30bn public transport plan to provide Liffey Valley with two rail lines changed the picture," she says. "We're now in talks with the planners, and we expect the new phase to be mixed-use." A masterplan should take shape before the end of this year.

In development terms the next phase should be comparatively straightforward: only two interests need to be bought in. And both Morley and Grosvenor are committed to maintaining the existing ownership structure under which Morley holds 72.8 per cent of the equity and Grosvenor the remainder.

But are the developers worried about competition as Ireland's shopping centre boom roars on unabated? "We're aware of the risks of overbuilding in this market," says Paterson. "But the fundamentals of the Irish economy are still strong."

"And not all the schemes that are proposed actually have a market," chips in Greenwood. "Just because you have a site and a consent doesn't mean you have a scheme."

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