Eur 50M John Lewis store to debut in Dublin

John Lewis has confirmed it is to debut in Ireland and open its first non-UK store in the capital city at Chartered Land’s O’Connell Street scheme.

As revealed by Property Week in May, the department store operator has agreed to occupy a 250,000 sq ft space at the scheme – Dublin Central – spread over five levels.

The move represents an investment of EUR50m (£40.5m) for the John Lewis Partnership in Ireland and is expected to create over 800 new jobs. The store will open in 2013. The Dublin department store will form part of the company’s existing expansion plans to double the size of its business in the next ten years.

Dominic Deeny, Chartered Land chief executive, said: ‘We are delighted to welcome John Lewis as the anchor tenant for our proposed Dublin Central scheme, which aims to be at the top of the Irish retail hierarchy.’

Gareth Thomas, director of retail design and development for John Lewis said: ‘Today’s announcement is significant for John Lewis in that it marks the first move by John Lewis to a location outside the United Kingdom.’

‘We look forward to developing our presence in the Irish market and in due course, delivering our unique and exciting product range and service offering to Irish shoppers.’

Neil Bannon of Bannon acted for the landlord.