The Ballymac factory outlet planned for Dundalk is not going ahead and much of the blame for the project's demise lies with the Republic's planning laws, according to a well-placed source.
Bill Tosh, chief executive of Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, says: "The planning process hurdle did for this project." Repeated delays in starting construction work on Ballymac, induced by the prolonged planning process, meant that the opening date was repeatedly put back. Before it was cancelled, the opening date had been postponed yet again, to September 2007.
The promoters, the McKinney group and Coverfield Developments, together with ING Real Estate, which was funding the project, had hoped that Ballymac would be open well before the Orana Group's rival The Outlet/Bridgewater Park scheme could be opened. In the event, Ballymac has been cancelled and the vast Banbridge scheme is set to open in April 2007.
Billy McKinney, managing director of the RJ McKinney group in Northern Ireland, declined to comment and referred all requests for information to the ING group and its public relations consultants. A statement released by ING read: "ING Real Estate Development UK has withdrawn from its plans to develop the Ballymac outlet centre in Dundalk, Ireland. Planning delays have hampered the project and the company is now in advanced negotiations to sell the site."
Planning permission for Ballymac had originally been granted by Dundalk Town Council in July 2004 and that decision was upheld by An Bord Pleanala, despite the recommendation of one of its inspectors that it be turned down. The scheme was approved subject to 28 conditions, one of which was that Ballymac could only be used as a factory outlet centre for discount sales. Another was that the developer had to submit details of a shuttle bus service between Ballymac and Dundalk town centre.
Following the decision, the developers were fully confident construction could begin so the centre could open at Easter 2006.
Then two appeals were lodged with An Bord Pleanala. One of them was from Desmond Mulholland of Carroll Village (Retail) Management Service. Carroll Village is a shopping centre in the centre of Dundalk. The other was by a local businessman, Donal Kinsella, who had himself submitted plans for a 39-unit factory outlet centre at Dunleer, just south of Dundalk.
After An Bord Pleanala's decision, the pair were given permission by Mr Justice Kelly to challenge the planning board's decision in the High Court. The judge ruled that this appeal was permissable because of the allegedly insufficient reasons given by the planning board for departing from its inspector's recommendations and because the Environmental Impact Statement was inadequate. The judge said the criteria applying to the siting of a factory outlet centre were different from those for normal retail outlets.
At this stage, Billy McKinney said: "This is the only project that has had two judicial reviews with regard to planning in the history of the State."
Eventually, the judicial challenge to the Ballymac decision was withdrawn, but one of the conditions was that development work on the site could not begin until 1 September 2006. The project has now been cancelled.
The ING Real Estate group is now believed to be in negotiations over future possible uses of the Ballymac site. Bill Tosh of the Dundalk Chamber of Commerce, says that it would be an ideal place for a leisure attraction, adding: "Needless to say, planning contravention would be an issue." Dundalk is already provided with retail parks, so that wouldn't be a realistic alternative.
Tosh is very critical of the way that the planning process in the Republic allows individuals to legally hold up the progress of this and other planning applications and the devastating impact it has had on the Ballymac scheme. He says that the outcome of all these planning delays over Ballymac has meant that competing plans in another jurisdiction have been able to fly, a reference to the Orana Group developments in Banbridge, Co Down, just across the border in Northern Ireland.
Bill Tosh adds that objectors, whether professional or private, should be obliged to furnish clearly articulated and coherent objections and that the two-year appeals process should be shortened to a matter of weeks. "Maybe we've all gone soft in this feather-bedded economy," he comments.
In Northern Ireland, the planning process doesn't allow for third party appeals, as does the system in the Republic.
However, John Farmer, chairman of the Orana Group says: "Even though we weren't open to appeals from all sides, I'm not sure that the planning process in Northern Ireland made it any easier for us. It was still a fairly lengthy process."
