Background

Blanchardstown Centre, A Planned Town Centre

The objective for the creation of a town centre at Blanchardstown has its genesis in the Dublin City Development Plan of 1972 which was the result of recommendations arising from a report undertaken by planning consultants in the 1960’s.

Blanchardstown is a suburb of Dublin located to the North West of the city with a population of 120,000 residents, adjacent the M50 and M3 motorways. It is within Ireland’s fastest growing local authority area of Fingal and is now bigger than Galway and Limerick Cities.
Green Property Limited opened the main retail component of Blanchardstown Centre in 1996. Since then the Centre has become Ireland’s largest retail and leisure development and the country’s most popular retail park destination.

The centre currently contains 1,100,000 sq. ft. of retail space and a further 200,000 sq. ft. of leisure uses including cinemas, a theatre & arts centre and Ireland’s largest public library.

eBay, Liberty Insurance and Fingal County Council have located their office headquarters at Blanchardstown Centre bringing over 1,300 staff to the area daily. Crowne Plaza (Intercontinental Hotel Group ) opened a 4 Star 200 bed hotel and conference centre in Blanchardstown Centre in 2008, alongside  a complex of apartments, rerstaurants and retail units and adjacent to the bus interchange which opened earlier the same year.

Blanchardstown Centre

Blanchardstown Centre is a Mecca for shoppers and attracts visitors from the four corners of Ireland.  It’s Ireland’s largest and most successful shopping, leisure and retail park destination. And it’s easy to see why - with over 180 leading high street retailers, numerous cafes and restaurants, together with an Odeon 9-screen cinema, Library and Draiocht Theatre – Blanchardstown Centre is an excellent destination for all the family.

Conveniently located on the M3 (Navan Road) and just off the M50, the Centre uniquely offers 7,000 FREE car parking spaces for its shoppers.  And for those choosing to travel by bus the Centre is serviced by 600 buses per day! The upgrade of the M50 and N3 has significantly benefited accessibility to the Centre with additional connectivity completed linking the N2 to the Centre and the Mulhuddard interchange. Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann have also improved scheduling by adding routes that bring more customers to the Centre.           

Joe Gavin, General Manager, says “Blanchardstown Centre continues to go from strength to strength.  We are a family Centre with a diverse mix of over 180 retailers covering all categories from Fashion, Food and Electrical to DIY & Furniture all within a convenient easy to access area.  All the leading Irish and International brands, a really strong fashion offer, 3 retail parks, 4* Hotel and lots of restaurants and entertainment facilities ensures we have whatever our customers require”. 

Hard Facts

1. Footfall 15million per annum
2. Number of stores 180
3. Three Anchor Department Stores – Marks & Spencer, Penneys, Dunnes Stores
4. 3 Retail Parks – in close proximity to the Core Centre
5. Free Parking for 7,000 cars
6. Odeon Cinema 

1. 20 Restaurants – with new openings due…
2. Four Star Hotel – Crowne Plaza
3. 2,000 students in the immediate vicinity
4. Over 600 bus movements per day through the Centre.
5. Immediate connectivity to M50 & M3 Motorways.   
6. 1.3 million square feet of Retail & Leisure outlets.
7. eBay, Liberty Insurance, Fingal County Council have located their headquarters at Blanchardstown Centre
8. Centre Gift Card scheme with over 80,000 customers
9. 30 million web site hits per year.
10. 50,000 plus Facebook contacts

Due to its density of population and its pivotal location adjacent to M50 and M3 motorways Blanchardstown Centre has a population of over 150,000 within a 10 minute drive and 800,000 people within a 20 minute drive.

Blanchardstown has experienced population growth of 37% in the ten year period between 1996 and 2006.

Blanchardstown Centre generally has a younger age profile than the national average.

38% of the population are under the age of 24 in comparison to the national average of 35%.