OPENING OF BRAY TOWN CENTRE IS DELAYED BY TWO MONTHS
THE Florentine Centre has been delayed by around two months, members of Bray Municipal District heard at last Tuesday’s meeting.
District manager Tom Murphy told members that while ‘practical completion’ was supposed to be done by the end of this year, in fact it will be more likely to be February or March 2020. Fit-out would begin shortly after that. The reasons for this include issues around the maintenance of the facade on Main Street, which will require additional steel, a shortage of steel and steel workers, and the fact that the architects went into receivership and had to be replaced. He said that recent rainfall had brought to a halt bricklaying and other works.
Mr Murphy said that Oakmount and Glenbrier are planning a robust review of the programme in the coming weeks. There will be more information once that is complete, but the actual launch time, which was expected at the end of quarter one 2020, will be closer to the end of quarter two 2020.
Developers and officials will meet again early in January. Meanwhile, they are anxious to get the cinema open as quickly as possible, even ahead of the other aspects of the scheme.
Mr Murphy said that leases are signed for a number of the smaller units, with legals under way for the others.
The ‘Bray Town Centre’ hoarding will be going up shortly, and the website is due to go live before Christmas. While the project is known locally as ‘Florentine’ due to the name of previous plans, it will actually be called Bray Town Centre.
Savills are looking after the marketing and are still reluctant to reveal the names of the anchor and other tenants until they are further along. Cllr Joe
Behan noted that it was expected at one point that the centre would be open by this Christmas. ‘I find it hard to accept (the delay) given so many people are waiting for this,’ said Cllr Behan. He enquired about who the big name anchor tenants are.
‘Every time there is a report we hear about small units, and nothing about the major tenants,’ said Cllr Behan. ‘Does the director believe they actually have any? Or is this becoming a problem?’
Cllr Dermot O’Brien said that there is something of a chasm in terms of information flow. ‘Bray talks a lot among itself, and perceived bad news travels like wildfire,’ he said. ‘It’s important how we manage the narrative. We need to get the anchor tenant names out there.’
Cllr Steven Matthews said that while it is disappointing to see it falling back, he has been involved in a lot of big projects.
‘Events do happen and things do fall behind.
‘It’s a prime town centre site, one of the best sites around,’ said Cllr Matthews, who also said that the quality of the development was extremely high. Cllr Matthews had pushed for the facade on the Main Street to be retained. ‘I asked and asked could it be retained,’ he said, ‘I don’t mind a little time to get that right,’ he said. Mr Murphy said that he is told that there is no shortage of interest in the units. He said that the council has an excellent relationship with the developers, who are committed to the highest standards.