Naas Plaza opening was the place to be on Sunday
Owner of the Naas Plaza Shopping Centre, Ger Roche (Roche Group) alongside his wife Annette Roche pictured at the opening of The Naas Plaza. Photo - Aishling Conway
WHEN last we spoke to Ger Roche, owner of the Naas Plaza, he predicted he’d have the place open by the end of July, then on Sunday (4 August) – only four days over prediction – his two sons PJ and Stephen and family cut the ribbon to officially open the newest retail destination in the county town.
Officially, he is only opening the mall area, the half-acre area behind the impressive Brandenburg Gate entrance on the Main Street between the Bank of Ireland and The Forge.
Hundreds, if not thousands, showed throughout the day on Sunday to get a look of the impressive mall and were enterained by a host of acts including the Druids and Naas Musicial Society.
No shops will be opened at this time, although “a whole lot of people are interested”, and he is still awaiting an anchor tenant.
“We had an anchor (tenant) but lost them, though it was not my fault,” said Mr Roche.
“But we have the names up over the gate and The Forge, and it looks very good now,” he said.
“We had a few difficulties with the licence for The Forge, and perhaps it’ll be another two months before that opens, but it is only the licence holding this up,” he revealed.
The new deli in the Mall is expected to open around the same time, in plenty of time for the Christmas rush.
In the meantime, there will be a small food trailer in the Mall to offer coffee and scones until the deli and Forge open.
“We’ve been nearly 20 years waiting to open this to the Main Street, and from Sunday it will be open from 6am to 12 midnight every day, 365,” said Mr Roche.
He also admitted the 700 plus space car park will not open at this time also.
“We’re still working on the car park, because an unbelievable amount of work has gone into opening the Mall,” he said. (And indeed, an lot of machine tools could be heard in the background of our phone call.)
“It (The Mall) looks well, and we’re very happy with it," he said.
“I’d hope to have the carpark open by the end of the year if a lot of things fall into place, but there were a lot of hidden things in there we were not ready for, like the sprinkler system all had to be changed,” he said.
On Sunday (4 August) after the official ribbon cutting and formal words from Mayor of Naas Cllr Fintan Brett, there will be a musical festival on site organised by Féile Nás na Ríogh committee.
This will be the first trading at the location in the 16 years since the centre was mothballed at 90 per cent completion in 2008 when the financial crisis of the previous year stymied the original developer Marshalsea’s plans for the site.
Mr Roche is believed to have got the landmark 1.54Ha (3.8ac) site from NAMA for an estimated €4.5m in the autumn of 2020, and is expected to spend a further €10-15m on fitting it out.
