*The development will be located on Harmony Row, Bank Place and Bindon St.
RETAIL GIANT PRIMARK, the company behind Penney’s are to seek planning permission for a new retail outlet in Ennis town centre.
Additional reporting by Gordon Deegan
Originally earmarked as the anchor tenant for a planned Abbey Street car park development as part of the Ennis 2040 strategy which has since been paused, Primark are now moving the mooted retail store across the River Fergus.
In a statutory notice published in The Clare Champion, Primark detailed plans to construct a three-storey outlet on a 1.3 acre site in Harmony Row, Bank Place and Bindon St in Ennis. The development will also involve the demolition of an existing derelict house and walls and the construction of a new over basement store with a total gross floor area of 3,500 square metres.
Plans also include a separate sub-station building, loading dock, delivery yard and new heavy goods vehicle entrance off Harmony Row. The plans also involve the alteration and re-arrangement of the existing carpark serving Bank of Ireland.
Permission to construct a new public riverside pedestrian walkway from Bank Place to the existing footbridge linking Abbey Street and Harmony Row. This involves new ramps, steps and modifications to the walkway of the existing pedestrian bridge including additions to present ramps and steps in Abbey Street car park and modifications to the bridge stone at Bank Place.
Primark already has a Penney’s store in Ennis which is located in the Ennis Shopping Centre. The company will await a decision from the planning authority before making any announcement on the future of their existing Ennis store.
The new store in Ennis is also part of Primark’s commitment to invest over €250m in Ireland over a ten-year period, which includes the development, relocation and/or refurbishment of its stores across the country.
A spokeswoman for Primark said, “We know how much our customers in Ennis would love a bigger Penneys store and we too would love to make that happen. We hope to share more details when we can”.
Penneys opened its first store on Mary St Dublin 56 years ago and with the addition of a new store at Bray last year it now has 38 stores across 21 counties in the Republic of Ireland. Penneys trades as Primark internationally and the retailer has over 450 stores across Europe and the US. Primark is also accelerating the pace of its international expansion, with ambitions to reach 530 stores by the end of 2026.
