Major retail centre planned for old Texas store site

In a welcome move to revitalise a vacant town centre site, major retail development plans for the former Texas department store site in Tullamore have been revealed.

A planning application is expected to be lodged with Offaly County Council in the coming days for the reported €7.5 million project comprising of a supermarket, cafe and two retail units. It's believed the project could create over 50 jobs.

Weavermay Ltd revealed the ambitious proposals in a recently published planning notice for the O'Connell Street and Offaly Street site.

Should it progress, it would see the demolition of buildings, extensions and sheds comprising 6,800 square metres to make way for a single-storey retail store and off-licence with a footprint of 1,820 square metres, a two retail/office unit, two-storey cafe (288 square metres) and a three-storey mixed-use building to Offaly Street.

Previous plans to develop a new shopping centre on the same site some years ago by another applicant never came to fruition.

Weavermay Ltd has a fortnight from the date of publication of their planning notice to submit formal plans for the multi-million euro project to the council.