Penneys department store in Eyre Square Shopping Centre is seeking planning permission for an expansion, by taking the unit below.
Primark Ltd, the owners of Penneys, are seeking approval to amalgamate the existing store on the first floor of the shopping centre, with the ground floor unit below.
This unit, currently occupied by New Look, would add an additional 1,721sqm of retail space to the 4,105sqm which is already there.
Structural alterations would need to be made to the shopping centre to accommodate this, including installing new escalators and a lift.
Other work in the development would involve installing a new shopfront on the ground floor level, with all windows and louvres to be replaced.
The cover report for the planning application states that extending such an “established and popular” brand will improve activity in the shopping centre, rather than causing a loss of competition.
“Primark brings a huge footfall to the shopping centre and it is not considered that the intensification of this retail unit will negatively affect the other retail units as it does not at present detract from their business or the services they offer.”
A decision on this planning application is due from Galway City Council by December 6 of this year.
