This €250m investment is backed by MacDonagh Junction Developments, an offshoot of Dublin-based Chesterbridge Developments, whose principals include Paul Hanby and Paul Newman. Nine per cent of the development is owned jointly by Kilkenny County Council and CIE, the state-owned public transport authority in Ireland.

The estate managers are Dublin-based DNG Commercial, whose managing partner Ed Douglas says: "There's been very strong interest from retailers in this world-class development. Everyone will be impressed with the results when the first phase of shopping opens in the autumn. It will provide an excellent opportunity for retailers to integrate into Kilkenny's vibrant commercial centre. It will attract shoppers from other areas, neighbouring counties and regions further afield. A strong marketing drive will underpin the launch."

He says this exceptional new city quarter will enhance Kilkenny's national reputation and potential as a leading retail, business, leisure and tourist destination, adding: "It's great to see many excellent tenants who will occupy the first major phase."

The developers say subsequent phases will be completed soon after the first phase is opened, creating what they say will be the region's first major retail mecca.

MacDonagh Junction will provide Kilkenny with just over 25,000 sq m of new shopping space, as well as 101 one- and two-bedroom apartments, civic offices, a bowling alley, restaurants and performance spaces plus community space and starter units for small businesses. A double basement parking area will provide room for 1,100 cars and a hotel is also being built on the site.

Two distinctive existing features are included in the new centre - the former Kilkenny workhouse and Victorian railway sheds. In addition a special memorial crypt is planned, but not for the shopping centre itself, where the 800 skeletons found during site excavation and thought to date from the mid-19th Century famine, will be re-interred.

The centre shares its name with Kilkenny railway station: Thomas MacDonagh was one of the seven leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, though he wasn't from Kilkenny but Cloughjordan in Co Tipperary.

Approximately a quarter of the centre's retail space is being taken by the anchor, Dunnes Stores, covering about 7,000 sq m - it has bought rather than rented its unit. Dunnes Stores is keeping its existing major outlet on Kiernan Street in the city centre.

The principal mall will contain 50 retail units in sizes that vary from 62 to 1,685 sq m. Other retailers include Barratt shoes, Carphone Warehouse, Champion Sports, Clarks shoes, Costa Coffee, Dr & Herb, Next, Peter Mark hairdressers, River Island, TK Maxx, Virgin and Zumo Juice Bar.

Rent levels vary from €753 to €1,076 per sq m, depending on location and size. At this stage, the centre is close to full occupancy.

The newly-appointed manager is well-known in Irish media and football circles. For the past two years, Donie Butler was deputy managing director of the Kilkenny Voice newspaper and previously spent 14 years at the Kilkenny People. Between 1985 and 1996, he was commercial manager of the Football Association of Ireland.

The existing centre is the long-established Market Cross, with about 40 retailers. A rival centre, of similar size to MacDonagh Junction and only a few hundred metres away, is being planned.

KMart Properties, a joint venture between Kilkenny Livestock Market and Melcorpo Property Development, put in a planning application last autumn for the €200m first phase of the Citymart shopping centre. They hope to open in 2009 and attract either Tesco or Marks & Spencer as the anchor. Kilkenny Mart is being relocated and the existing site will be used for the development.

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