Once praised as the future fashion capital of Ireland, The 100,000 sq ft premises which cost £30million Stirling to develop, lies desolate.

Figures released show that Rathdowney Shopping Outlet has recorded staggering losses of €9.8million for the financial year ending March 2010. 

Accumulated losses  for the financial years 2008 and 2009 which include a revaluation hit add up to €12million, meaning the in the last three years the shopping centre has lost over €20million.  

The company behind the shopping outlet, AWG Outlets, have confirmed that attempts made to sell the development have proved fruitless since the start of the year. AWG also revealed in its end of year accounts that its loan with Anglo Irish Bank has been transferred to a fund management firm, making it very difficult to devise a long term plan for the centre. 

Brand Central, Rathdowney on a Friday afternoon

The owners have warned that the continued viability of the centre is not certain. 

There are currently just nine businesses running out of 41 available units within the shopping centre, including The Carphone Warehouse and Holland &Barretts. 

 The last business to wind down in the Outlet was Tearaways crèche in May, an ominous sign for the future of the centre as it was a €1million investment by AWG in 2004, rather than being an independently leased operation. Reebok, which had been in the Outlet since it was first opened in 2001, withdrew from the Rathdowney development in January of this year. 

The main walk-way of the shopping centre.

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In 2001 Domnic Brown, then managing director of Morrison’s Outlet group a subsidiary of AWG, envisaged that 1.5million people would visit the outlet every year.  In its first 3 years, Rathdowney Designer Outlet had a footfall of over 1.4million, and ever since the economic downturn the centre has been haemorrhaging business and money rapidly.

Once praised as the “future fashion capital of Ireland”, The 100,000 sq ft premises which cost £30million Stirling to develop, lies desolate 

When contacted, senior staff within the Designer Outlet was not even aware that the end of year accounts had been published by AWG, yet they weren’t altogether surprised by the figures. The shopping centre had a general manager, Lisa Cororan, who left her post in mid 2010. No replacement manager has been hired since, leaving administrative staff to run the centre.

AWG Property Ltd is the commercial and residential property arm of AWG Plc, a FTSE 250 listed company with a portfolio of over 1.67bn and over 7 million square feet of commercial developments internationally.