Dundrum Town Centre

Dundrum Town Centre

Dundrum town centre (Dundrum South entrance)
Location Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland
Coordinates 53°17′10″N 6°14′30″W / 53.28611°N 6.24167°WCoordinates: 53°17′10″N 6°14′30″W / 53.28611°N 6.24167°W
Address Dundrum Town Centre
Sandyford Road
Dundrum
Dublin 16
Opening date 3 March 2005
Management Don Nugent
Owner Crossidge Developments (Joe O'Reilly)
Architect Burke - Kennedy Doyle Architects, Dublin, Ireland
No. of stores and services 160
No. of anchor tenants 5
Total retail floor area 79,000 square metres (850,000 sq ft)
No. of floors 4 (main levels)
Parking 3,400
Website http://www.dundrum.ie/

"Dundrum Town Centre" is the name of a shopping centre located in Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland. It's Ireland's largest[1] shopping centre with over 169 tenants, more than 80,000 square metres of floor space and over 3,400 car parking spaces. It is located just south of the town centre of Dundrum.

History

DTC was built on the site of the former Pye television factory, later the site of an entertainment and bowling centre called Dundrum Bowl. In 1993, the Dundrum Bowl was closed in due to flooding.

Dundrum Town Centre was opened on 3 March 2005. Over 5,000[2] people queued in the main square. Within 3 years, over 70 million people visited Dundrum Town Centre.[3]

The centre has grown in phases an is divided into various districts. The "Gallery" district is located in the main building, the "Pembroke" district is locating around the Mill Pond, and the "Dundrum South" district is located outside the main Tesco overground car park.

Name

"Dundrum Town Centre" was originally a local government term, defined by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, before the shopping centre was built. It was described as "the area between the Luas line, the Dundrum Relief Road, the Taney Rd./Upper Churchtown Rd. junction and the Wyckham By-Pass Route. It is mainly zoned for Town Centre uses, but with some parts zoned residential." The shopping centre was built under the provisions of the Urban Structure Plan for Dundrum Town Centre.

Also the name Dundrum Shopping Centre refers to an older smaller shopping centre off Main Street in Dundrum, which is still open and home to Lidl, Classic Furniture, Mulveys of Dundrum. In recent years following many years of decay due to the opening of the Town Centre, efforts have been made to revamp this centre and it is now known as Dundrum Village Centre.

2011 flood

Dundrum Town Centre was evacuated shortly before 8pm on 24 October 2011 after floodwaters surged through the doors. The owner of a Mexican restaurant in the complex said five feet of water had rushed down steps towards his business, causing thousands of euros worth of damage.[4]

Tenants

Dundrum lists over 169 tenants ranging from high fashion to restaurants to a cinema. Some of the larger retail tenants include Tesco Ireland, Marks and Spencer, House of Fraser, HMV, Siam Thai, Next, Harvey Nichols, Gap, Hollister Co., Penney's, Hamleys, Eddie Rocket's and WOW HD.

Parking

There is no free parking at the centre, and a fee is charged for both the Tesco surface car park, and the underground car parks. Tesco provide a limited period of free parking (2 hours) if €30 is spent in the supermarket and the parking ticket is presented at the checkout.

Public transport

The centre is served by the Luas green line, the closest station is Balally but it is also close to Dundrum station itself.

It is also served by Dublin Bus routes 14, 44, 44b and 75

Kelly Travel operate bus services from Limerick, Nenagh & Roscrea.

Opening hours

Most shops in the centre are usually open 09:00 - 21:00 Monday to Friday (some open until 21:30), 09:00 - 19:00 on Saturdays and 10:00 - 19:00 on Sundays. The cinema and many restaurants, cafés and bars in the Town Square and Pembroke District are open much later. Tesco used to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but has now gone back to daily opening hours from 06:00 to 00:00. Tesco's petrol station is still open at all times.

In December, opening hours are extended in almost all stores, with the centre open from 08:00 - 00:00 on weekdays before Christmas.

Media

The RTÉ studio in Dundrum Town Centre

Dublin South FM 93.9 is a local BCI-licensed community based radio station for South Dublin. It started broadcasting in 1996 from the old PYE centre, and also broadcast from Rathfarnham. It is now broadcast from its new studios in the Dundrum Town Centre. About 60 volunteers produce and broadcast 35 hours of programmes each week. Transitions students from local schools also get involved, as well as media students.

Communicorp also have a studio in Dundrm Town Centre with 98fm, Spin 1038. NewsTalk and Today FM regularly broadcasting from it. Today FM's Phil Cawley presents a show from the centre every Sunday from 1-4.

The interior of Dundrum Town Centre

There is also an in-house TV station, Dundrum Television, operated by RTÉ.

Awards

In 2011, DTC was awarded the county's first Ecocert certification.[5]

By the end of 2009, Dundrum Town Centre had won 30 national and international awards since opening.

In 2009, Dundrum Town Centre was awarded "Shopping Centre of the Year" for the third year running at the FBD Retail Excellence Awards, as voted by shopping centre retailers throughout Ireland.[6]

On Friday, 27 April 2007, Dundrum Town Centre was named as the ICSC (International Council of Shopping Centres) European Shopping Centre of the year for 2007 at their European conference in Warsaw. Shopping Centres throughout Europe were visited and judged as part of a rigorous adjudication system, which has as its criteria: Tenant Mix, Community Integration, Vision, Customer Service Ethos, Management Systems and Sustainability. From an initial list of 24, a short list of 3 were chosen, which included Shopping Centre Sello in Finland (84,000 sq m), Silesia City Centre, in Poland (65,000 sq m) and Dundrum Town Centre (79,000 sq m).[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/buying-frenzy-set-to-continue-in-new-year-1.2031376
  2. ↑ Rathfarnham Community Website
  3. ↑ Brief description from DTC website
  4. ↑ Cassisy, Luke (25 October 2011). "Dundrum flooding response criticised". The Irish Times. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  5. ↑ "2011 News Archive - Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council". Retrieved 2013-04-10.
  6. ↑
  7. ↑ Dundrum Town Centre News

External links