Plans set to be lodged for €500m new town quarter in Navan

Plans for the first phase of a new €500m town centre development in Navan are due to be lodged with Meath County Council and Navan Town Council this week. The plans concern lands between the Dan Shaw Road and Trim Road which have been earmarked for the expansion of Navan"s town centre. As well as providing a completely new shopping quarter, provision is also being made for the new central railway station and park and ride facilities for the town which will serve the new passenger rail line to Dublin. Navan Co-Ownership, a joint venture between well-known Navan developers Duignan & McCarthy and Davy Property Holdings, is seeking permission for the first phase of the €500m development that will be built on a phased basis over 10 years. The overall development will include some 1.3m square feet of retail space and the first phase provides for 250,000 square feet of net retail space. It is estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 jobs would be provided when the new town centre is fully operational. Provision will also be made within the development for the new central railway station proposed for Navan and for the associated park and ride facilities. Two concurrent applications are to be lodged with Meath County Council and Navan Town Council this week. Some 2.677 hectares of the site falls within Navan Town Council"s boundary and the first phase of the development includes 35,524sqm of gross retail floor space (21,619sqm of net retail space) in a building fronting onto Carriage Road to the north, the future Navan to Dublin Rail line and a proposed road to the west, a proposed boulevard to the east and a proposed public civic space to the south. The building would be four storeys in height fronting onto Carriage Road and three storeys fronting onto the new public space to the south. The retail building will include three anchor retail units of 6,013sq m, 3,915sq m and 1,697sq m, respectively, and will contain 42 retail units, as well as a 623sq m food court. The main pedestrian entrance will be at the southern corner of the building fronting onto the public civic space and the secondary pedestrian entrance is along the eastern facade of the building. The proposal also includes 795 parking spaces. The plans provide for internal vehicular roads consisting of a new boulevard to the east of the retail development linking Carriage road to the Dan Shaw Road and a new road traversing the site from north-west to south-east linking the Trim Road to Carriage Road. The development will be accessed via two vehicular entrances off Carriage Road. A public civic space of 5,254sq m is proposed to the south of the site. A concurrent planning application to Meath County Council seeks permission for the demolition of all existing structures on site, none of which are residential, the construction of two vehicular access points along the Trim Road, one vehicular access on the Dan Shaw Road, internal vehicular roads consisting of a boulevard linking the Trim Road to Carriage Road, and another road linking the boulevard with the Trim Road and the civic space to the north of the site. The planning application follows extensive discussions between developers and planners on a framework plan for the lands. It is understood that the developers of the site had intended lodging an application six to nine months ago, but that delays over Local Area Plans (LAPs) meant the plans could only be lodged now. While current economic times are less than favourable, it is understood that it could take up to 18 months for planning approval to be given for the massive project.