Huge store and hotel planned

Caw Properties Ltd. has applied for permission to build a “food superstore and 100 bed hotel with associated access (including a new roundabout on Gransha Park) and carparking/servicing arrangements, landscaping and general site works (with attenuation pond) at the Gransha junction of the Madam’s Bank Road (Foyle Bridge) and the Clooney Road.”

According to a Design Concept Statement prepared by HKR Architects/Rapport Architects and submitted to the local planning office last month the proposed superstore will have a massive gross floorspace of 7,800 square metres - bigger than Foyleside phase II and equivalent in size to a food superstore proposed for the former Desmond and Sons factory site in Drumahoe.

The land is described as being in the ownership of Caw Properties Ltd. - a McGinnis Group vehicle - and is bounded by property owned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), the Western, Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT) and DRD Roads Service.

The application includes a request for permission to build a SUDS “sustainable (urban) drainage systems” attenuation pond to drain surface water in a more sustainable fashion.

The Design Statement explains: “The property is in the ownership of Caw Properties Ltd and the proposal is to construct a large food superstore (84,000 sq ft) with parking both at grade and under the North West portion of the building ,all accessed from a new site road and constructed partially on the adiacent Health Estates land.

“In addition approval is sought for a 100 bed hotel with access from the same new road and with surface parking adjacent to the hotel entrance.

“The site and proposed development will require a SUDS attenuation pond and while Roads service had previously indicated a location for the pond, this application suggests a location within our client’s ownership, with maintenance access gained from the new access road. This location has been agreed in principal with the DOE Consultant Scott Wilson.”

The gross floorspace for the superstore is 7,800 square metres. A range of retail units, a customer restaurant and basement car park are all included in the plan.

An upper and lower level car park will accommodate 558 vehicles with an additional 31 accessible places. ‘Travelators’ will transport shoppers to the stores.

By comparison Foyleside phase II had gross retail floorspace of 7,208 square metres and was approved in 2001 with no parking spaces.

The Statement says the development will improve what is currently a “road-dominated” area.

“It is considered that this mix of retail, hotel and landscaped areas will provide a pleasant grouping of buildings and uses, which, when sited in the existing mature landscape will be a positive addition to the road dominated location.

“The introduction of a new bridge linking the residential area to the East of the Clooney Road, and the proposed pedestrian route adjacent to the main retail entrance will help to integrate the local neighbourhood with these new leisure facilities,” it reads.

The Sentinel asked The McGinnis Group and Rapport Architechts for further details of the development but neither were prepared to comment at the time of going to press.